(D)  Illegal Re-Entry Sentencing.  The authors of the United States Sentencing Guidelines, for whom the category “aggravated felony” plays a sentence enhancement role, have provided for a downward departure if the particular “aggravated felony” is not a very serious one, and have now enacted a graduated schedule of sentence enhancements based on aggravated felonies of different degrees of seriousness.[12]  In some criminal cases, courts use different standards and/or definitions than those applied in the immigration context to determine the seriousness of an offense for sentence enhancement purposes.  See § 19.22, infra.

[12] See U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b).

Other

AGGRAVATED FELONY"LEGISLATIVE ALERT"THIRD DRUG DRIVING PROPOSED AS AGGRAVATED FELONY
There is a bill now pending in Congress, S.1925, "To Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994", which primarily deals with that topic, but also seeks to create authority for Indian tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians for domestic violence, and then sneaks in the following: "Section 1008. REMOVAL OF DRUNK DRIVERS (a) In General: Section 101(a)(43)(F) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43)(F) is amended by striking "for which the term of imprisonment" and inserting "including a third drunk driving conviction, regardless of the States in which the convictions occurred or whether the offenses are classified as misdemeanors or felonies under State or Federal law, for which the term of imprisonment is" and then another provision making that effective immediately on the date of the amendment. Thus anyone who got a third misdemeanor DWI, with one year imprisonment suspended, would have an aggravated felony, notwithstanding Leocal. This bill was reported out of the Senate Judiciary committee on February 7, 2012. Thanks to Tova Indritz.