Minnesota’s Board of Pardons granted clemency to Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian national convicted in a child sex abuse case, after a recommendation from the state’s Clemency Review Commission. Days later, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the federal government revoked Vang’s legal status and deported him, arguing the state action would not prevent his removal.
Minnesota’s Clemency Review Commission recommended clemency for Tou Lue Vang, 42, a Laotian national whose case drew renewed scrutiny because federal authorities were pursuing his deportation.
The Minnesota Board of Pardons—made up of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson—voted unanimously on June 10 to grant Vang clemency, according to reporting by CBS Minnesota and other outlets.
Records cited in local and national coverage say Vang pleaded guilty in 2005 in a case involving the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl. Court documents referenced in reporting describe repeated abuse beginning in 2002, and indicate Vang received an eight-month sentence in a county correctional workhouse along with 30 years of probation.
Federal officials said the state pardon would not stop immigration enforcement. In a statement and in comments reported by multiple outlets, Rubio said he terminated Vang’s legal status and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him.
"Americans should never have to live in fear that foreign sex predators — shielded from deportation by their own elected officials — could endanger them or their children," Rubio said.
Minnesota officials have said the clemency process included a recommendation from the Clemency Review Commission and submissions supporting Vang’s application, including from the victim, as part of what the attorney general’s office described as an exhaustive review.
