United States v. Cristino Mendoza Torres

── United States v. Cristino Mendoza Torres ── Case No.: 25-12990 Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: March 23, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 25-12990 Document: 27-1 Date Filed: 03/23/2026 Page: 1 of 7 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-12990 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus CRISTINO MENDOZA TORRES, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama D.C. Docket No. 2:25-cr-00186-LCB-NAD-1 ____________________ Before JILL PRYOR, BRANCH, and GRANT, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Cristino Mendoza Torres brings this appeal challenging his 18-month sentence. Because the district court failed to explain its USCA11 Case: 25-12990 Document: 27-1 Date Filed: 03/23/2026 Page: 2 of 7 2 Opinion of the Court 25-12990 decision to impose an upward variance, we vacate and remand for resentencing. I. In March 2025, Mendoza Torres was pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving. Inside the car, police found a Ruger 9mm pistol. Mendoza Torres was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Soon after, Mendoza Torres, a Mexican citizen, was taken into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). An ICE officer found Mendoza Torres in possession of a fraudulent social security card and lawful permanent resident card. He was charged with and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of immigration documents procured by fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a). Mendoza Torres’s sentencing hearing was brief. It lasted just over ten minutes; the hearing transcript filled less than ten pages. At the hearing, little was in dispute. The government and Mendoza Torres’s counsel agreed that his offense level was four and his criminal history category was I, which yielded a Sentencing Guidelines range of zero to six months’ imprisonment. The government requested a sentence of six months, at the top of the range, noting that Mendoza Torres had already been in custody for “approximately five months.” Doc. 33 at 6. 1 His counsel had no objection to the government’s request, “given how long he ha[d] 1 “Doc.” numbers refer to the district court’s docket entries. USCA11 Case: 25-12990 Document: 27-1 Date Filed: 03/23/2026 Page: 3 of 7 25-12990 Opinion of the Court 3 been in custody.” Id. His counsel explained to the district court that Mendoza Torres obtained the fraudulent documents because he was told that he needed them to work, he had no “prior interactions with Customs and Border Patrol or ICE” until this case, and this case would result in “his first and only removal.” Id. at 5–6. The government did not address these facts or any other facts about Mendoza Torres or his conduct. After his counsel’s brief comments, the court imposed a sentence of 18 months. The court said that it had “considered the guidelines computation” and “taken them under advisement.” Id. at 8. It then recited that the sentence was sufficient but not greater than necessary to comply