Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies before the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
MINNEAPOLIS (KFGO-WCCO) — The Trump administration revokes the legal status of a Minnesota man who received a controversial pardon from Governor Tim Walz and other members of the Minnesota Board of Pardons last month.
The pardon of Laotian national Tou Lue Vang effectively shielded him from his pending deportation according to Department of Homeland Security officials.
The now 42-year old was convicted 20-years ago of sexually assaulting a child when he was 18 and the victim was 10-years-old.
That victim wrote a letter to the Board of Pardons saying they forgive Vang, wanted him to be able to stay with his family, and urged the board to grant the pardon.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Vang has been removed from the United States.
“Because of our action, this foreign criminal will never pose a threat to any American ever again,” Rubio said in a social media post. “Americans must never be forced by their elected leaders to live alongside foreign sex criminals who have no right to begin with to reside in our country.”
Vang’s pardon sparked political attacks from local and national Republican party leaders that Democrats are soft on crime and immigration enforcement.
“Just days before this foreign sex offender was scheduled to be deported, Tim Walz, the governor, issued him a pardon, setting him free to once again endanger the children of America,” Rubio continued. “Well, this week I revoked his legal status in the United States and as a result, federal agents took him into custody. And as of today, he has been removed from the United States.”
Minnesota Republican House Speaker, and gubernatorial candidate, Lisa Demuth also chimed in on social media saying Sec. Rubio was ‘correct to act.’
“Deport child predators. Do not pardon child predators,” she said. “Not sure why that’s a hard concept for Tim Walz and Amy Klobuchar to understand.”
Vang was sentenced in February 2006 to 12 years imprisonment for that crime, but that sentence was stayed. He did receive 30 years of supervised probation, which was discharged in March 2019, and also served eight months of a one-year sentence in a county workhouse.
Vang was arrested during the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Metro Surge” in December. His removal was imminent when the state’s three-member Board of Pardons, Walz (D), Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), and Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, unanimously granted that pardon on June 10.
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