Tim Walz defends Minnesota pardon of sex offender deported to Laos

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has publicly defended his vote to pardon a Laotian citizen who was subject to a final deportation order after losing legal status following his conviction on child sex crimes for first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a 10-year-old girl after the Trump administration deported him to Laos last week.

Tou Lue Vang, 42, received a pardon from the Minnesota Board of Pardons on June 10. On Friday, the Trump administration announced that Wang’s legal status was revoked and he was deported to his native Laos.

Asked about the deportation, Walz questioned what the move accomplished.

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“Did that make us safer?” Walz said Tuesday, according to KTTC. “Did this make the kids left behind more stable?

“Did he develop the idea that we can’t all be judged by our worst day?”

“And I want to be very clear,” Walz continued. “These are terrible crimes. Most of the time they are.”

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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks during a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City on October 1, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Walz also said Vang’s pardon was not related to immigration policy, noting that the Board of Pardons has refused to grant clemency to other applicants facing immigration consequences.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Vang’s deportation on Friday, telling Fox News Digital: “Americans should not have to live in fear that foreign sex predators, protected 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,” Rubio continued. “Vang is now removed from our country and will never pose a threat to any American again.”

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the dedication ceremony for the annex at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi on May 23, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AFP)

Fox News Digital previously reported that Vang admitted to sexually assaulting a girl multiple times over several years, starting when she was 10 years old.

Vang entered the United States through California in 1994 and was granted legal status during the Clinton administration. Between 2002 and 2004, St. He sexually assaulted the victim multiple times in St. Paul, Minnesota. The first attack occurred when he was in the fourth grade. Following the conviction, federal officials said Vang lost his legal status and was placed under a final deportation order.

The Minnesota Clemency Review Commission recommended a pardon for Vang. The Pardon Board, comprised of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, later granted the pardon.

The amnesty drew criticism from federal immigration officials and Republican lawmakers. According to KSTP, Walz defended the decision by citing the victim’s support for Vang’s pardon, among other factors. A spokesperson from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office told MPR News that the pardon does not protect Vang from deportation.

At the time, Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Lauren Bis criticized the decision.

“Governor Tim Walz’s decision to pardon a convicted illegal alien child rapist so he can stay in our country is disgusting,” Bis said.

“These are criminal, illegal aliens that he and his Minnesota sanctuary politicians are protecting.”

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Walz’s office for additional comment.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.