A 42-year-old Honduran national working as a handyman in Mounds View, Minnesota allegedly overpowered and repeatedly raped a resident inside her own home on October 11, in an assault officials say was captured on the woman's indoor surveillance video. Marcotulio Melendez Diaz now faces a felony charge of first-degree criminal sexual penetration involving coercion, and he could spend up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
The case drew national attention after Fox News reported that Melendez Diaz had been released from federal immigration custody just weeks before the alleged attack. According to the outlet, U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia, who sits on the bench in the Western District of Texas, granted Melendez Diaz's habeas petition on due-process grounds, finding that his detention had been unlawful or unreasonably prolonged. That ruling allowed him to return to Minnesota.
Fox News, citing federal immigration authorities, reported that Melendez Diaz was first apprehended and released at the southern border in April 2024. Authorities said he was arrested in Minnesota in January 2026 during Operation Metro Surge and transferred to ICE detention in Texas. An immigration judge ordered his deportation on March 30, 2026, and he appealed, according to the outlet.
A Deportation Order, Then a Release, Then an Arrest
The Board of Immigration Appeals rejected Melendez Diaz’s appeal and issued a deportation order on October 9, two days before the alleged assault, Fox News reported. He remains in custody on the sexual assault charge.
ICE has criticized Garcia’s release order, arguing that the alleged rape could have been prevented had Melendez Diaz remained in custody. The agency’s statement is its characterization of the events, not a finding in the criminal case. On X, ICE’s official account called it “Another preventable, heinous crime,” adding: “Marcotulio Melendez Diaz, a Honduran illegal alien, was arrested by ICE, but a Clinton-appointed federal judge ordered him RELEASED from custody.”
Part of a Larger Pattern of Minnesota Detainee Transfers
The Melendez Diaz case lands amid a broader surge in immigration enforcement activity across Minnesota. The Trump administration sent roughly 3,000 immigration agents into the state over the objections of local officials, according to The New York Times. That surge has coincided with a sharp rise in detentions nationwide: KTTC reported that ICE was holding more than 65,000 people across the country by mid-November, a 62% jump from roughly 40,000 detentions in January 2025. Of those held, about a quarter had criminal convictions, another quarter faced pending criminal charges, and nearly half were being held for civil immigration violations, the station reported.
Minnesota detainees have also increasingly been moved out of state while their cases proceed. An analysis by Sahan Journal found that of the Minnesota detainees it tracked between September 2023 and October 15, 2025, 1,586 — more than half — were later transferred to facilities outside the state. About a third of those relocated detainees, 561 people, were transferred for immediate removal and deported within two days, while at least 98 were held outside Minnesota for more than a month, the outlet reported.
What the Immigration and Criminal Cases Decide
A habeas challenge asks a court to review the legality of a person’s detention; it does not itself decide whether that person can be deported or whether they are guilty of a crime. ICE says custody decisions for people not subject to mandatory detention or deemed a public-safety or flight risk are made case by case, considering flight risk, national security and public safety. In the separate 2018 case Jennings v. Rodriguez, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the detention statutes at issue did not themselves require periodic bond hearings, while leaving constitutional arguments for consideration on remand; that ruling concerned custody procedures, not removal or criminal guilt. Minnesota’s first-degree criminal-sexual-conduct statute includes sexual penetration where the actor causes personal injury and uses coercion among its qualifying circumstances. The statutory definition does not establish that the allegations against Melendez Diaz are true.
No underlying court records from Garcia’s ruling or the Board of Immigration Appeals decision have been made public in connection with this case. The charge against Melendez Diaz is an allegation, not a conviction, and he remains in custody as the case moves forward.
