Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said a child rapist from Minnesota was deported from the country after Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) pardon of the sex offender removed the criminal sexual conduct conviction underlying his deportation order.
Walz was on the three-person panel that pardoned Tou Lue Vang in June, around a week before he was set to be deported from the United States following his apprehension by the Department of Homeland Security during “Operation Metro Surge” in December. The pardon stoked controversy as Vang was convicted of sex crimes against a 10-year-old girl, which he pleaded guilty to in 2005.
Amid the backlash, Rubio stepped in to terminate Vang’s legal status in the U.S., telling Fox News Digital, “Americans should never have to live in fear that foreign sex predators — shielded from deportation by their own elected officials — could endanger them or their children.
“That’s why I terminated his legal status in the United States,” the secretary of state said. “Vang has now been removed from our country and will never pose a threat to any American ever again.”
Vang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand in 1983, according to his pardon application. He was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in 1994 and was granted legal status, becoming a permanent resident and eventually moving to Minnesota.
In 2005, Vang pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct and admitted to repeatedly raping the child. He was sentenced in 2006, but largely avoided prison time as part of a plea deal. At the time, Vang blamed his sex crimes on how he was raised in Thailand, telling authorities “it is a cultural thing … to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.”
Following his conviction, Vang’s legal status in the U.S. was revoked, with a judge issuing a final order of removal. But his deportation was delayed for years, until the Trump administration ramped up operations targeting illegal immigrants in Minnesota last year and arrested him during Operation Metro Surge.
Vang asked Minnesota for a pardon before his deportation and was granted it, a move Republicans claimed could prevent the U.S. from removing him from the country.
Attorney General Keith Ellison, who was on the three-person Minnesota Board of Pardons, said “DHS is lying through their teeth” about the pardon, saying that it would not protect Vang from deportation since the Trump administration “does not have to restore his green card.” This pardon removed the criminal sexual conduct conviction, which was the underlying reason for Vang’s deportation proceedings. It did not prevent the Trump administration from restarting proceedings and choosing not to restore his green card.
Members of the Minnesota Board of Pardons said they granted the pardon to Vang last month largely due to the victim writing a letter on his behalf.
“What happened to me was wrong, but I have had many years to think about this,” wrote the victim. “I have made my peace with it. I forgive him.”
Vang also submitted a letter expressing regret and saying he took full responsibility for the case.
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Vang’s deportation, as confirmed Friday by Rubio and DHS, brings the debacle full circle.
“ICE deported Tou Vang, an illegal alien convicted child rapist,” DHS acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. “This monster repeatedly sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl. Tim Walz pardoned this sex criminal in an attempt to allow him to remain in our country. These are the criminal illegal aliens he and sanctuary politicians are protecting. We will always put the safety of the American people first.”
