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. 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 Last Friday, the Trump administration announced that Vang’s legal status had been revoked and that he had been deported to his home country of Laos.

Background of the Case

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 a girl over a period of several years beginning when she was 10 years old. 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.

Walz questioned what the deportation accomplished, saying, ‘Did that make us any safer? Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable?’ He 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.

Reaction to the Pardon

The pardon drew criticism from federal immigration officials and Republican lawmakers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Vang’s deportation, saying, ‘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.’

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.