Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pardons illegal immigrant who was convicted of sexually molesting 10-year-old girl

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Tim Walz and two other Minnesota officials comprising a clemency panel voted unanimously Wednesday to pardon a 42-year-old illegal immigrant from Laos who was convicted in 2006 of repeatedly sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. The pardon clears the man's criminal record and puts his deportation from the U.S. in question. 

Tou Lue Vang, 42, was given a pardon last month by the Minnesota Board of Pardons, but the pardon needed final approval from the clemency board, which includes Minnesota Gov. and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and Natalie Hudson, the state’s chief Supreme Court justice.

The Department of Homeland Security blasted the pardon late Wednesday, issuing a scathing statement suggesting Walz and other Minnesota officials are getting in the way of the federal government's efforts to deport criminal and dangerous illegal immigrants as well as denaturalizing immigrants who commit serious offenses. 

Vang was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and his removal from the country was imminent until the pardon, which provides him a new legal avenue to fight deportation, threw that into doubt. Details from the court case are shocking, to be sure. 

"According to court filings, Vang repeatedly sexually assaulted a girl between 2002 and 2004. On one occasion, he tried to offer his victim $10 to keep quiet about the sexual assaults," the Homeland Security Department said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The DHS said that when Vang was questioned by investigators, "he tried to justify his actions by saying that for him 'it is a cultural thing ... to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.'” Vang also told police that the victim, 10, was guilty, too, and should also be arrested.

Vang entered the U.S. in 1994 and was granted legal status at the time. After his conviction in 2006, that status was revoked and a final order of removal was issued, but Vang never left the country.

“Governor Tim Walz's decision to pardon an illegal alien convicted child rapist so he can remain in our country is disgusting,” acting assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said.

“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," Bis continued. "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.”

According to The New York Times, Walz and the others on the clemency boards were inclined to pardon Vang because the victim in the case, who was not named, wrote a letter to Minnesota officials lobbying for the pardon. 

The original lead prosecutor on the case, Susan Gaertner, whose office secured the conviction against Vang back in 2006 expressed skepticism about the pardon. Speaking to The New York Times, said Vang's pardon was “unusual given the seriousness of the offense and the fact that the defendant did not receive significant consequences after he pled guilty.”