U.S. District Judge Judith Levy, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, is facing criticism for declining to add prison time for illegal reentry to the sentence of a Honduran man who raped a woman with cerebral palsy. Instead of imposing the additional term sought by prosecutors, Levy cited his remorse, lengthy state sentence, and family obligations, while suggesting he could dissuade others in Honduras from entering the United States unlawfully.
Edys Renan Membreño Díaz, a 30-year-old Honduran national who, according to The Detroit News as cited by The Daily Wire, entered the United States illegally seven times, attacked a woman with cerebral palsy and cognitive delays in the laundry room of her apartment building in Michigan. He pleaded guilty to three sex crimes and, in October 2022, received a state prison sentence of 6 to 15 years, according to The Detroit News reporting referenced by The Daily Wire.
In August 2025, during federal proceedings in the Eastern District of Michigan for illegal reentry after removal, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy opted not to impose the roughly additional 19 months in prison that federal prosecutors requested for the immigration offense. Instead, she sentenced Membreño Díaz to time served — about five months in federal custody — to run consecutively to his existing state term, The Detroit News reported, as summarized by The Daily Wire and other outlets.
At the hearing, Levy described Díaz as someone who could serve as an "ambassador for living up to our immigration restrictions," saying he had pledged to return to Honduras and warn others against entering the United States without documentation. Addressing the underlying sex crime, Levy said, "I agree that that's a horrible crime. ... You've taken responsibility for that, expressed remorse for that and you are serving a lengthy state sentence as punishment for that conduct," according to quotations from the sentencing hearing reported by The Detroit News and reproduced by The Daily Wire.
Levy also remarked on his work history and support for his family. "So I commend you for supporting your family, for expressing your devotion to them and for working here in the United States in jobs that Americans apparently do not want to work in and certainly not for the wages that were undoubtedly abusive of your work for them," she said, according to the same reporting.
For his part, Membreño Díaz expressed regret in court, saying, "I was drunk, and I apologize to everybody, to all the American citizens. I wish to go back to my country and not to come back to the United States and to advise other people to not come here illegally and, if they do, to come here legally so they don't pay the consequences that I am facing being incarcerated," The Detroit News reported, as quoted by The Daily Wire.
The sentencing decision has prompted sharp criticism from some federal officials and political figures. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X that Levy's ruling showed "unspeakable depravity" and called it "truly wicked," citing reporting from The Detroit News. She faulted the judge for refusing to impose an additional term for the immigration offense while praising Membreño Díaz's "family devotion and willingness to perform work that [the court] claimed Americans find undesirable," according to posts highlighted by The Daily Wire and other outlets.
In October 2025, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan appealed the federal sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, seeking a resentencing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan Sweeney Bean wrote that "it is rare for the government to appeal a sentence as substantively unreasonable, but doing so is warranted here," arguing that the district court "spun (Díaz's) repeated illegal entries in his favor" and gave "virtually no weight to his violent sex crimes," according to the government’s brief as described by The Detroit News and summarized by The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire and The Detroit News have reported that, with credit for time served and under the terms of his 6- to 15-year state sentence, Membreño Díaz could be eligible for release from state custody as early as July 2028, based on information from the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Levy, the first openly lesbian federal judge in Michigan, was appointed to the bench by President Obama in 2014 and has served on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan since then, according to federal judicial records and contemporary news coverage.
While critics argue that the immigration sentence was unduly lenient compared with national averages for illegal reentry cases, Levy’s comments from the bench, as reported by The Detroit News, indicate she viewed the lengthy state sentence for the sex offenses, his expressed remorse, and his stated intention to comply with immigration laws in the future as sufficient punishment and deterrence.
