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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz publicly defended his vote to pardon a Laotian national who had been under a final removal order after losing legal status following a child-sex-crime conviction convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a 10-year-old girl after the Trump administration deported him to Laos last week.
Tou Lue Vang, 42, received a pardon from Minnesota’s Board of Pardons on June 10. Last Friday, the Trump administration announced that Vang’s legal status had been revoked and that he had been deported to his home country of Laos.
Asked about the deportation, Walz questioned what the move accomplished.
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“Did that make us any safer?” Walz said Tuesday, according to KTTC. “Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable?”
“Did it improve the idea that we can’t all be judged by our worst day?” he added.
“And I want to be very clear,” Walz continued. “These are horrific crimes. They often are.”
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Walz also said Vang’s pardon was not about immigration policy, noting that the Board of Pardons had denied clemency to other applicants facing immigration-related consequences.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Vang’s deportation Friday, telling Fox News Digital: “Americans should never have to live in fear that foreign sex predators — shielded from deportation by their own elected officials — could endanger them or their children.”
“That’s why I terminated his legal status in the United States,” Rubio continued. “Vang has now been removed from our country and will never pose a threat to any American ever again.”
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Fox News Digital previously reported that Vang admitted to repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl over a period of several years beginning when she was 10 years old.
Vang entered the United States through California in 1994 and was granted legal status during the Clinton administration. Between 2002 and 2004, he repeatedly sexually assaulted the victim in St. Paul, Minnesota. The first assault occurred when she was in the fourth grade. After his conviction, federal officials said Vang lost legal status and was placed under a final removal order.
The Minnesota Clemency Review Commission recommended a pardon for Vang. The Board of Pardons — made up of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson — later granted the pardon.
The pardon drew criticism from federal immigration officials and Republican lawmakers. Walz defended the decision by citing the victim’s support for Vang’s pardon, among other factors, according to KSTP. A spokesperson for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office told MPR News that the pardon did not protect Vang from deportation.
At the time, Homeland Security Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis criticized the decision.
“Governor Tim Walz’s decision to pardon an illegal alien convicted child rapist so he can remain in our country is disgusting,” Bis said.
“These are the criminal illegal aliens he and his Minnesota sanctuary politicians are protecting,” she added.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Walz’s office for additional comment.
Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.