The following published opinions were released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on April 29, 2008:

• Patel v. Mukasey (Higginbotham, Benavides, Dennis, JJ.; opinion by Dennis, J.). Petitioner had been convicted for misprision of bank fraud, which was found by the IJ and the BIA to justify removal as an “aggravated felony.” On first impression to the Fifth Circuit, the panel held that misprision of a felony, where the amount involved exceeds $10,000.00, does constitute an aggravated felony.
• U.S. v. Lopez-Velasquez (Jones, C.J., Barksdale, Stewart, JJ.; per curiam). Defendant was convicted of illegal reentry following deportation, and sentenced to 72 months imprisonment and 3 years supervised release; he was also convicted of violating an earlier sentence of supervised release, and sentenced to an additional 20 months imprisonment. The Fifth Circuit held that the 72-month prison sentence was not plain error in that the district court made adequate findings to justify an upward variance from the Guidelines range; that the district court acted appropriately in giving greater weight to two prior drug possession convictions than provided for in the Sentencing Guidelines; that the district court did not abuse its discretion in treatment of the mitigating factors of the defendant’s cultural assimilation; that the district court did not abuse its discretion in considering the defendant’s 11 prior arrests, where the criminal history indicated by those arrests was corroborated by 6 prior deportations, in making the sentencing determination; that the district court did not err in sua sponte imposing an upward variation from the Guidelines without prior notice to the defendant; and that the lack of a fast-track sentencing program in the Northern District of Texas did not violate the defendant’s Equal Protection rights.