Minnesota's Board of Pardons, led by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, granted a pardon to a 42-year-old Laos national convicted of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, a decision that came just one week before the man was scheduled to be deported, Fox News Digital reported.
Tou Lue Vang pleaded guilty in 2006 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He had sexually assaulted the girl repeatedly between 2002 and 2006 and offered her $10 to keep quiet about the abuse. His plea deal spared him from prison. His legal status in the United States was revoked upon conviction, and a final order of removal was issued that same year.
Nearly two decades later, Minnesota's three-member Board of Pardons, Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, voted unanimously at its June 10 meeting to wipe Vang's record clean. The Department of Homeland Security says the pardon effectively strips away the conviction that made Vang removable from the country.
The timing alone tells a story. Vang had been detained by federal authorities as part of the Trump administration's "Operation Metro Surge" in Minnesota. He was days away from removal to Laos when the Board of Pardons intervened.
The Washington Examiner reported that Vang had been sentenced in February 2006 to 12 years with the sentence stayed, plus 30 years of supervised probation. DHS stated the pardon would "take away this child rapist's qualifying convictions that made him removable from the United States," effectively blocking his deportation.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement posted on social media that the pardon "came just a week before Vang was set to be REMOVED from our nation."
The path to the pardon ran through the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission, a nine-member body that voted in April to recommend it. The vote was four in favor, two against, with three members absent. The Board of Pardons retains final authority to grant or deny clemency, and all three members, Walz, Ellison, and Hudson, approved.
Vang entered the United States through California in 1994 and was granted legal status by the Clinton administration. He was arrested in 2005 on charges related to the sexual assaults.
A criminal complaint obtained by the New York Times showed that Vang admitted to having sexual contact with the girl but blamed cultural norms in Thailand. He pleaded guilty under a deal that kept him out of prison, a deal the Ramsey County Attorney's Office prosecuted. Fox News Digital reached out to the Ramsey County Attorney's Office, Gov. Walz, and the White House for comment.
The Walz administration has faced persistent scrutiny over its handling of public trust, from federal fraud investigations to questions about oversight of state agencies.
DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis issued a blistering statement condemning the decision:
"Governor Tim Walz's decision to pardon an illegal alien convicted child rapist so he can remain in our country is disgusting. These are the criminal illegal aliens he and his Minnesota sanctuary politicians are protecting."
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin went further. Breitbart reported Mullin's statement calling Vang "evil" and accusing sanctuary politicians like Walz of protecting criminal illegal immigrants over American citizens.
"This evil alien from Laos repeatedly sexually assaulted a 10 year old child. These are the illegal alien criminals sanctuary politicians like Tim Walz are protecting over American citizens."
DHS also noted that the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission has granted pardons to illegal immigrants before, meaning Vang's case is not an isolated incident but part of a pattern.
Vang's pardon was not the only controversial clemency decision in recent months. Just weeks earlier, in May, the state pardoned Jai Vang, a Laotian citizen whose criminal record includes convictions for robbery, armed robbery of a business, and driving under the influence. Whether the two are related is unclear from available records.
The broader picture in Minnesota raises hard questions about accountability at the top. The Walz administration has faced separate scrutiny over the massive Feeding Our Future fraud case, in which hundreds of millions of federal dollars disappeared under the state's watch.
Carli Stark, executive director of the Clemency Review Commission, sent Vang a letter informing him of the board's decision. Her characterization of the pardon was striking:
"Being granted a pardon is a notable achievement and a reflection of the work you have done since your conviction."
A "notable achievement." For a man who repeatedly sexually assaulted a child and tried to buy her silence for ten dollars.
Vang's pardon application cited years of rehabilitation and argued he had taken full responsibility for his actions. The specific steps he took, and the criteria the Board of Pardons applied in granting the pardon, remain unclear. So does the precise legal effect on Vang's immigration status, the letter described the pardon as giving him "a clean slate," but the immigration consequences are a matter of federal law, not state clemency.
The New York Post reported that the pardon effectively allows Vang to remain in the country by removing the conviction that formed the basis for his deportation order. DHS's own statement described the mechanism in plain terms: the pardon takes away the qualifying conviction that made Vang removable.
That means a state-level clemency board, led by a governor, an attorney general, and a chief justice, used its power to override a federal deportation order for a convicted child sex offender. Whether that was the board's intent or merely its effect, the result is the same.
Walz has faced repeated criticism from President Trump and federal officials over Minnesota's sanctuary policies, which shield illegal immigrants, including those convicted of violent crimes, from federal immigration enforcement. This pardon fits squarely within that pattern.
Meanwhile, questions about governance in Minnesota continue to mount. The governor ousted his own DHS commissioner amid fraud scrutiny, and the state has faced a string of cases testing public confidence in its institutions.
Several facts remain unreported. Fox News Digital noted it reached out to Walz, the White House, and the Ramsey County Attorney's Office for comment. No responses were included. The three CRC members who were absent from the April vote have not been identified. The specific grounds on which the Board of Pardons approved the pardon have not been disclosed.
And the victim, a girl who was ten years old when the assaults began, has not been heard from. Her name has not been made public. What is public is the state's decision to call the pardon of her abuser "a notable achievement."
Minnesota's legal and political landscape has also produced other troubling cases, including a noncitizen charged with felony voter fraud in the 2024 election.
When a state's leaders use their authority to shield a convicted child sex offender from the consequences of his crimes and his immigration violations, the question stops being about clemency. It becomes about whose side those leaders are on, and it is not the side of a ten-year-old girl.