NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAR 24 2025 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 22-50126 D.C. No. Plaintiff - Appellee, 2:21-cr-00396-FLA-1 v. MEMORANDUM* HUGO EDUARDO PULIDO-AVINA,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha, District Judge, Presiding

Submitted March 17, 2025**

Before: CANBY, R. NELSON, and FORREST, Circuit Judges.

Hugo Eduardo Pulido-Avina appeals from the district court’s judgment and

challenges the 12-month-and-one-day sentence imposed following his guilty-plea

conviction for being an illegal alien found in the United States following

deportation in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). § 1291, and we affirm.

Pulido-Avina contends that the district court erred in denying him a

downward departure for cultural assimilation and imposed a substantively

unreasonable sentence. We do not independently review the propriety of a

departure; instead, we ask only whether the sentence is substantively reasonable.

See United States v. Vasquez-Cruz, 692 F.3d 1001, 1005 (9th Cir. 2012).

The district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing the within-

Guidelines sentence, which is substantively reasonable in light of the 18 U.S.C.

§ 3553(a) factors and the totality of the circumstances, including Pulido-Avina’s

criminal and immigration record. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51

(2007).

AFFIRMED.

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