A 26-year-old Guatemalan national who fathered a child with a 14-year-old girl in Marshall, Minnesota, and was deported twice, was sentenced to time served plus five years of probation in a federal courtroom in downtown St. Paul. U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud handed down the sentence for Diego Perez-Mejia's conviction on failing to register as a sex offender after he illegally re-entered the country and resumed living with the victim and their daughter.
The case traces back to April 2023, when Perez-Mejia was charged in Lyon County with felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct after DNA testing confirmed he was the father of a daughter born to a 14-year-old girl in late 2022, according to Center of the American Experiment. He was 21 or 22 years old at the time the girl became pregnant, and he had reportedly served as her de facto guardian, the outlet reported. He pleaded guilty in October 2023 and was sentenced in January 2024 to 60 days in the Lyon County workhouse with a stayed prison sentence.
Deported, Then Back in Marshall
Following his 2024 state sentence, Perez-Mejia was deported to Guatemala — the first of two removals, per the outlet's reporting. He re-entered the United States illegally in October 2024 and resumed living in Marshall with the victim and their child, the report states, until Marshall police apprehended him during a traffic stop in July 2025 tied to a state probation violation. He had been working in the local meatpacking industry before that arrest, according to the same account.
Perez-Mejia was then taken into federal custody in 2025. His defense attorney claimed in federal court filings that much of the Perez family had voluntarily returned to Guatemala, the outlet reported — a detail that remains attributed only to the defense's own filings.
Federal Charges and the Registration Law Behind Them
Perez-Mejia's federal case centered on 18 U.S.C. § 2250, the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which makes it a felony for anyone required to register as a sex offender to knowingly fail to update that registration after crossing state or international borders, carrying penalties of up to 10 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The law was enacted to close jurisdictional gaps that had allowed registrants to dodge updated registration when moving between jurisdictions, per the same agency.
Under Minnesota Statute § 243.166, people convicted of felony predatory offenses such as criminal sexual conduct must register their address, vehicle, and employment details with the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for at least 10 years or the length of their probation, according to the City of New Hope. Failing to update that state registration is itself an independent felony that can add up to five more years of required registration.
Separately, illegal re-entry by someone previously deported after a felony conviction is punishable under 8 U.S.C. § 1326 by up to 10 years in federal prison, or up to 20 years if the earlier removal followed an aggravated felony, per the Department of Justice. Nationally, roughly 94% of unauthorized re-entry defendants in recent fiscal years came from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, according to the National Immigration Project.
Mandatory Minimum Probation, Time Served
Judge Tostrud sentenced Perez-Mejia to time served — 13 months — for the federal failure-to-register conviction, along with five years of probation, which is the statutory mandatory minimum under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(k) for federal sex offense and SORNA violations, per the Department of Justice. The federal hearing reportedly included two law clerks, two defense lawyers, one prosecutor, one probation officer, three deputy U.S. Marshals, and a Spanish-language interpreter, all working at taxpayer expense inside the federal courthouse in downtown St. Paul, according to the Center of the American Experiment.
Judge Tostrud, who presided over the sentencing, became Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on July 1, succeeding former Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz, as Hoodline reported at the time he inherited a bench with heavy regional criminal and immigration caseloads. He also previously ruled that ICE made race-based stops in Minnesota, Hoodline has reported.
What Happens Next Remains Unresolved
It remains unclear whether Perez-Mejia will be remanded directly to ICE custody for deportation or returned to Lyon County District Court first to resolve pending state probation violation proceedings tied to his original 2024 conviction. He may face ICE detention and deportation to Guatemala, and he may also return to Lyon County for further proceedings in the underlying state criminal case, according to the Center of the American Experiment's reporting — but which process takes precedence has not been publicly resolved.
Federal courts in Minnesota have shown a pattern of strict enforcement in similar SORNA cases. In April, a sex offender who had absconded from Minnesota supervision was sentenced in federal court to 30 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release after fleeing to Iowa, Hoodline's disappearing-act report found. Federal sex offender tracking in such cases is typically coordinated between local police departments and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Under Minnesota Statute § 609.344, the underlying charge Perez-Mejia originally faced — sexual penetration of a minor under 16 by an adult — is classified as third-degree criminal sexual conduct, carrying penalties of up to 15 years in prison and $30,000 in fines, according to RAINN. The law explicitly states that not knowing a victim's age is not a valid legal defense, and Minnesota sets the general age of consent at 16.
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