The case of Tou Lou Vang has made headlines over recent weeks after Minnesota’s Board of Pardons (Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Hudson) unanimously voted to issue a full pardon to Vang for his 2006 conviction involving the repeated sexual assault of a female minor. My colleague John Phelen has written about that development in detail here, here, and here.
The pardon was an effort by the Walz administration to thwart deportation proceedings against Vang by the Trump administration. An article by the Center for Immigration Studies lays that gameplan out in detail – read it here. The article quotes Acting Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Lauren Bis.
“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. Tou Lue Vang lost his legal status following his conviction for repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl. Following the conviction, he was placed in removal proceedings and issued a final order of removal by a judge. This pardon will take away this child rapist’s qualifying convictions that made him removable from the United States.”
This morning Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he had revoked Vang’s legal status and that ICE had removed Vang from the country.
Vang has been subject to an order for removal since 2006, but the order had gone unexecuted for 20 years because Laos is a “recalcitrant country” which refuses accept returns of its deported nationals from the United States, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
At this point, it is unclear where Vang has been removed to, but the Trump administration continues to send a strong message that it will firmly enforce our immigration law, especially involving those involved in criminal activity – a policy that has broad public support.