In the ongoing culture war over national security, immigration, and basic public safety, a chilling case out of Minnesota has exposed the lengths to which soft-on-crime progressive officials are willing to go to shield non-citizen criminals from deportation, and the federal action required to stop them.
Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian national, was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. His crime was heinous: he repeatedly raped a 10-year-old girl between 2002 and 2004. Upon arrest, Vang dismissively told investigators that child abuse was “a cultural thing… to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12,” even trying to pay his young victim for her silence.
For two decades, Vang’s case worked its way through the gears of the justice system, eventually putting him on track for federal deportation. Under federal law, non-citizens convicted of “aggravated felonies,” notably child sexual abuse, are subject to mandatory removal.
But on June 10, 2026, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the State Board of Pardons, which includes progressives Natalie Hudson and Attorney General Keith Ellison, stepped in. Acting on a recommendation from the state’s Clemency Review Commission, Walz granted Vang a full pardon.
The rationale offered by Walz was nothing short of a slap in the face to American citizens, the victim, and normal standards of justice. Defending the move, Walz actually referred to the convicted child rapist as a “taxpaying citizen” who is “creating job growth.”
“I can find no reason how Minnesota will be safer or better if Mr. Vang is deported,” Walz claimed. “I do not see how it would serve his family.”
The reaction from federal law enforcement was swift and furious. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis blasted the move: “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.”
The pardon threatened to create immediate legal hurdles for federal deportation officers, as state-level pardons can sometimes complicate federal immigration enforcement. This is where US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stepped in.
Refusing to let Minnesota’s bleeding-heart, sanctuary-state agenda dictate national security, Rubio used his department’s authority to terminate Vang’s legal status in the United States and strip him of any remaining bureaucratic shields. With his status summarily canceled, federal immigration officials moved fast. On Friday morning, Rubio announced that Vang had been officially deported and expelled from American soil.
“Just weeks ago, a foreign child rapist was freed to once again endanger America’s children after receiving a pardon from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz,” Rubio said in a video statement. “Americans should never have to live in fear that foreign sex predators, shielded by their own elected officials, could endanger them or their children. That’s why I terminated his legal status in the United States. Vang has now been removed from our country and will never pose a threat to any American ever again.”
Under Walz’s tenure, Minnesota has repeatedly found itself in the spotlight for progressive policies prioritizing criminal non-citizens over the safety of actual residents. Just a month prior, Walz and his clemency board pardoned another Laotian national convicted of armed robbery, likewise to prevent his deportation.
By prioritizing the “economic interests” and convenience of a convicted pedophile over the clear requirements of federal law, Tim Walz sent a chilling message about who the progressive left keeps in mind when they talk about “democracy” and “human rights.” But as this case proves, the federal government still has the teeth to bypass local sanctuary grandstanding and protect American communities, even when local governors refuse to do so.
