Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has sparked a firestorm of national outrage after he and the state's Board of Pardons cleared a convicted illegal alien sex offender of his criminal record, effectively shielding him from imminent deportation. The case, first reported by Trending Politics News, centers on 42-year-old Tou Lue Vang, a Laos national who pleaded guilty in 2005 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct for repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl who was just 10 years old when the abuse began.
The Minnesota Board of Pardons voted unanimously on June 10 to grant the pardon. The three-member board consists of Governor Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson. Their decision followed a recommendation from the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission, which voted 4-2 in April 2026 to approve the petition, with three members absent.
Vang was born in 1983 in a refugee camp in Thailand and came to the United States in 1994 at age 11. He eventually settled in Minnesota within the Hmong community. Between roughly 2002 and 2006, he repeatedly sexually assaulted the young victim. Despite the severity of the crime, Vang received no prison time as part of a plea deal, instead receiving 30 years of probation. The Ramsey County Attorney's Office, which opposed the pardon, noted that the lenient original sentence was partly the result of pressure placed on the victim's family.
In his pardon application, Vang claimed years of rehabilitation and said he had taken full responsibility. "The shame and regret I carry, especially as my children have grown older and learned about my past, run deep. If it were possible to undo what happened, I would do so without hesitation," he wrote to the board.
The victim submitted an unsigned statement expressing forgiveness. "What happened to me was wrong, but I have had many years to think about this. I have made peace with it. I forgive him," she wrote.
Governor Walz's office said the victim's letter carried significant weight in the decision. Attorney General Ellison's office pointed to the unanimous board vote, the victim's statement of support, the commission's recommendation, and a large volume of community support letters as the basis for the decision.
Board members have maintained that immigration status or pending deportation is not, on its own, a reason to grant or deny a pardon, and that rehabilitation and other factors are weighed in the process.
The timing, however, has drawn intense scrutiny. After his 2006 conviction, Vang lost his legal immigration status, and an immigration judge issued a final order of removal that same year. For years, Laos refused to accept deportees from the U.S., but that policy shifted after the current presidential administration took office. In late 2025, federal immigration authorities detained Vang during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. He was facing imminent deportation to Laos when the pardon came through.
The Department of Homeland Security responded with blistering criticism. "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," a DHS spokesperson said.
DHS further explained that the state pardon effectively strips away the criminal conviction that served as the legal foundation for Vang's removal order. While the pardon does not automatically grant Vang legal immigration status or completely block all federal immigration actions, it gives him substantial legal ground to challenge his deportation proceedings in immigration court.
The pardon restores Vang's civil rights and provides him with a clean criminal record for most purposes, a benefit that critics argue should never be extended to someone convicted of sexually assaulting a child.
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