The clemency decision could affect the deportation of a Laos national who had been ordered removed since 2006.
The Minnesota Board of Pardons granted a pardon June 10 to a Laos national convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, a decision that could block his deportation just weeks before it was set to occur.
The board, made up of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, approved the pardon for Tou Lue Vang, 42, on the recommendation of the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission. The commission’s nine members voted 4-2 in April to recommend the pardon, with three members absent, according to reporting from the New York Times. Carli Stark, the commission’s executive director, notified Vang of the decision in a letter dated June 11.
Vang pleaded guilty Oct. 31, 2005, to first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a charge covering sexual penetration or contact with a victim under 13 by an offender more than three years older. Court records reviewed by Valley News Live place the assaults between 2002 and 2004. Ramsey County District Court Judge Paulette Flynn sentenced Vang on Feb. 16, 2006, to 144 months, with the sentence stayed. He served time at the Ramsey County Workhouse and was placed on 30 years of supervised probation, which was discharged in March 2019.
The Department of Homeland Security said Vang offered the victim ten dollars to keep the abuse quiet. During a police interview, according to DHS, Vang attempted to justify the assaults by saying it was “a cultural thing” for him to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12, and claimed the victim shared responsibility. Those specific claims have not been independently verified through court filings. In his pardon application, Vang pointed to his conduct in the years since the conviction and said he has accepted full responsibility for his actions.
Vang entered the United States through California in 1994 and was granted legal status under the Clinton administration. That status was revoked after his 2006 conviction, and a Department of Justice immigration judge issued a final order of removal the same year. He was detained last year as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge enforcement push in Minnesota and was scheduled for removal to Laos within about a week of the pardon being granted.
DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis condemned the decision in a statement, calling it disgusting that Walz would act to keep a convicted child rapist in the country and accusing Minnesota’s “sanctuary politicians” of shielding dangerous offenders. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement separately noted on social media that the pardon came just a week before Vang’s scheduled removal.
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican candidate for governor, also criticized the pardon, saying Walz and Ellison were weakening public safety and pledging that no one who commits crimes against children would receive clemency under her administration.
The commission has issued at least one other pardon involving a Laotian national with a serious criminal record. In May, it granted clemency to Jai Vang, whose convictions include robbery, armed robbery of a business and driving under the influence.
Fox News Digital reported it had reached out to Walz’s office, the White House and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the original case, for comment.
