Tim Walz Pardoned a Child Rapist and DHS Just Exposed the Excuse He Gave

Tou Lue Vang once paid his 10-year-old victim $10 to keep her quiet.

Minnesota's pardon board wiped that conviction away right before he was set to be deported.

That decision just triggered a furious response from the Department of Homeland Security.

The Pardon That Erased a Child Rapist's Record

Tou Lue Vang spent years sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl.

The abuse started in 2002 and continued through 2004.

He tried to buy her silence rather than face what he'd done.

He was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in a deal that kept him out of prison.

A Ramsey County judge stayed his prison sentence and placed him on decades of probation instead.

That conviction stripped Vang of the legal status he had held since arriving in California in 1994 as a child.

A federal immigration judge signed his removal order before the year was out.

But Laos wouldn't take him back, and that refusal kept him in the country for nearly twenty years.

Everything changed in 2025, when Laos agreed to start accepting deportees again.

ICE wasted no time and put Vang on the schedule for last month.

Then Minnesota's Board of Pardons stepped in.

Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson voted unanimously on June 10 to erase Vang's conviction entirely.

The state's own Clemency Review Commission wasn't nearly as united on the matter.

Four members voted yes. Two voted no. Three skipped the meeting entirely.

The full board overruled that split and pardoned him regardless.

Vang told police his crimes were "a cultural thing…to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12."

He also claimed his 10-year-old victim was equally to blame.

Walz Has Done This Before

This isn't the first time Minnesota's pardon board has cleared a violent offender facing deportation.

In May, the same commission pardoned Jai Vang, another Laotian national with felony convictions for armed robbery and robbery of a business with a gun.

He too had been swept up in a federal immigration crackdown before Minnesota stepped in.

DHS says the pattern is now impossible to ignore.

ICE weighed in too, noting the pardon landed just one week before Vang's scheduled removal.

DHS called the Tou Lue Vang pardon "disgusting," accusing Walz and his allies of shielding the exact kind of criminal illegal aliens they claim to oppose.

Republicans didn't hold back either.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said the governor keeps putting "violent illegal aliens ahead of innocent Americans."

Democrats Say the Victim Wanted This

State officials defended the decision by pointing to a letter from Vang's now-adult victim, who wrote that she has forgiven him and supported his pardon.

Vang's own letter to the board claimed he has spent two decades rebuilding his life and taking full responsibility for what he did.

Republican Lisa Demuth, the House Speaker now running for governor, said the pardon shows exactly why Minnesota can't afford more of the same soft-on-crime leadership.

Federal officials note the forgiveness letter changes nothing about the facts of the crime, or the reason Vang was ordered removed from the country in the first place.

Why This Story Should Make Every American Furious

Minnesota just proved that committing a horrific crime against a child is not the biggest problem an illegal alien can have in that state.

The bigger problem is getting caught by a state government more interested in protecting you than protecting a 10-year-old girl.

Walz, Ellison, and Hudson didn't just review Vang's case.

They erased it, and they did it a week before ICE could finish the job a federal judge ordered two decades ago.

This is the second violent offender Minnesota's pardon board has sprung from deportation this year alone.

Two pardons.

Two deportations blocked.

Zero apologies to the victims left behind.

Vang served no prison time for what he did, thanks to a plea deal, and now he won't face deportation either, thanks to the governor.

Sanctuary politicians love to talk about compassion until you ask them why a convicted child rapist deserved forgiveness from the state before his own victim ever got real justice from the government meant to protect her.

Sources:

• Louis Casiano, "Walz, Minnesota Board of Pardons Clears Convicted Illegal Alien Child Sex Offender Facing Deportation," Fox News, July 1, 2026.
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "Minnesota Madness: Governor Tim Walz Pardons Criminal Illegal Alien Convicted of Sexually Assaulting a 10-Year-Old Girl," DHS.gov, July 1, 2026.
• Troy Myers, "Minnesota Pardons Convicted Illegal Immigrant Sex Offender a Week Before His Removal," The Epoch Times, July 1, 2026.
• Lillian Mann, "DHS: Minn. Gov. Walz Pardons Criminal Illegal Alien Convicted of Sexually Assaulting 10-Year-Old Girl," One America News Network, July 2, 2026.
• KNSI News Staff, "Walz, Minnesota Panel Pardons Convicted Child Sex Offender Facing Deportation," KNSI, July 2, 2026.