The Minnesota Board of Pardons voted unanimously on June 10 to pardon a 42-year-old Laos national convicted of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, wiping his record clean just one week before he was scheduled to be deported. Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson all signed off on the decision.
Tou Lue Vang pleaded guilty in 2006 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He never served a day in prison. And now, thanks to the three most powerful officials in Minnesota's justice system, the conviction that made him removable from the United States no longer exists.
The pardon drew immediate condemnation from the Department of Homeland Security. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis did not hold back, as Fox News Digital reported:
"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."
Bis also stated that the pardon "will take away this child rapist's qualifying convictions that made him removable from the United States," as the Washington Examiner reported.
Vang entered the United States through California in 1994 and received legal status under the Clinton administration. Between 2002 and 2006, he repeatedly sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl. DHS stated he offered the child $10 to keep quiet about the abuse.
When police arrested Vang in 2005, he admitted to having sexual contact with the girl but blamed cultural norms in Thailand, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the New York Times.
He pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct in a deal that spared him from prison. He was sentenced to 12 years with the sentence stayed, plus 30 years of supervised probation, the New York Post reported. His legal status was revoked upon conviction, and a final order of removal was issued in 2006.
That order stood for nearly two decades. Federal authorities finally detained Vang last year as part of the Trump administration's "Operation Metro Surge" in Minnesota, and his deportation to Laos was imminent.
Then the pardon came through, one week before the scheduled removal.
Minnesota's clemency process runs through two bodies. The nine-member Clemency Review Commission evaluates petitions first and sends recommendations to the Board of Pardons, which holds final authority. The CRC voted in April to approve Vang's petition, with four members in favor, two against, and three absent.
The Board of Pardons, consisting solely of Walz, Ellison, and Hudson, then took up the matter at its June 10 meeting and granted the pardon unanimously. The board cited a support statement from the victim and community letters in its decision.
Carli Stark, executive director of the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission, sent Vang a letter informing him of the outcome:
"Being granted a pardon is a notable achievement and a reflection of the work you have done since your conviction."
In his pardon application, Vang cited years of rehabilitation and argued he had taken full responsibility for his actions. The specific steps he claimed to have taken were not detailed in public reporting.
Minnesota's pattern of clemency decisions for illegal immigrants facing removal is not new. DHS noted the CRC has granted pardons to illegal immigrants before. In a separate case, the state pardoned another Laotian citizen, Jai Vang, in May. His criminal history includes convictions for robbery, armed robbery of a business, and driving under the influence.
The pardon lands in a state already under scrutiny for institutional failures. Minnesota's massive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal exposed how hundreds of millions in federal dollars were stolen through a pandemic-era food program, with a ringleader recently sentenced to 41 years in prison.
Attorney General Ellison, who sits on the same Board of Pardons that cleared Vang's record, has faced his own questions about oversight. He dodged testimony as the Feeding Our Future fraud ties drew fresh scrutiny earlier this year.
The Walz administration's approach to immigration enforcement has drawn sustained criticism from the Trump White House. President Trump has repeatedly called out Walz and Minnesota officials over sanctuary policies that shield illegal immigrants, including those convicted of violent crimes, from federal authorities.
Walz's office, for its part, pointed to the letter the victim provided the board, and said such pleas for clemency carry significant weight, as Breitbart reported, citing the New York Times. Fox News Digital reached out to Walz, the White House, and the Ramsey County Attorney's Office for comment.
The pardon essentially gives Vang a clean slate. By erasing the conviction that triggered his removal order, it could make his deportation to Laos impossible, or at least far more difficult for federal authorities to carry out.
Several questions remain unanswered. The specific mechanism by which the pardon interacts with the existing federal removal order is unclear. Whether DHS and ICE will pursue alternative legal avenues to enforce deportation has not been publicly addressed. And the two CRC members who voted against recommending the pardon have not had their reasoning reported.
What is clear is the sequence: a man who sexually assaulted a child for four years, who pleaded guilty, who never went to prison, who lost his legal status, and who was finally detained for removal nearly two decades later, walked away with a clean record because three elected and appointed officials in Minnesota decided his rehabilitation outweighed his crime.
The broader pattern of Democratic officials using institutional levers to shield illegal immigrants from federal enforcement raises questions that extend well beyond Minnesota. Across the country, voters have watched as party insiders have shielded their own from accountability while demanding trust from the public.
Meanwhile, federal law enforcement under the Trump administration has moved aggressively to remove criminal illegal immigrants. FBI and DHS operations have targeted gang members, fraud networks, and violent offenders for arrest and prosecution. Operation Metro Surge specifically targeted Minnesota, where the political leadership has made enforcement more difficult at every turn.
Lost in the procedural language of pardons, clemency commissions, and rehabilitation claims is a 10-year-old girl. She was assaulted repeatedly over four years by a man who offered her $10 to stay silent. He admitted what he did. He pleaded guilty. He avoided prison.
And now the state of Minnesota has told him his record is clean.
Walz, Ellison, and Hudson each had the power to stop this. None of them did. The vote was unanimous. The pardon came one week before Vang was set to leave the country. The timing alone raises the question of whether this was an act of mercy or an act of obstruction dressed in the language of second chances.
When officials use the pardon power not to correct injustice but to block federal immigration enforcement for a convicted child sex offender, they are not serving justice. They are making a political choice, and the people who bear the cost are never the ones making it.