A Minnesota pardon board that includes Gov Tim Walz among its three members has issued a full pardon to a convicted Laotian child-molester, torpedoing Homeland Security's effort to deport him. The 42-year-old convict, Tou Lue Vang, submitted a letter to the board saying he regretted what he did -- and just like that, his criminal record is now clean as a whistle via unanimous decision.
“Governor Tim Walz's decision to pardon an illegal alien convicted child rapist so he can remain in our country is disgusting,” said DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis. “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."
In a storyline that has Democrats co-conspiring to infuse precious "diversity" into the American bloodstream over more than three decades, the Clinton administration granted Vang legal status after he entered the United States as a child in 1994. Now, 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has helped guarantee that the convicted sex fiend will be safe from deportation. The two other members of the pardon board are Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and chief Supreme Court justice, Natalie Hudson.
Vang was convicted of sexually assaulting a girl who was just 10 years old when his perverted acts began. He repeated the offense with the same girl between 2002 and 2004, and pathetically tried to buy her silence with an offer of just $10 in hush money. After his conviction, an immigration judge ordered his removal way back in 2006.
When he was first interrogated by police, Vang tried to sweep away the gravity of his actions, telling them, "it is a cultural thing...to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.” Apparently, Walz -- who's heralded as a reliable "ally" for the LGBTQ crowd and famously put tampons in school-kids' boys rooms -- thinks diversity in sexual morality is our strength too. Vang's pardon quest was bolstered by a supportive letter to the board from his victim, along with many letters of support from the "community."
Minnesota is on a roll when it comes to helping Laotian criminals stay in America. "In May, the state pardoned Jai Vang, a criminal illegal alien from Laos, whose criminal record includes convictions for robbery, robbery of a business with a gun, and driving under the influence of liquor," noted DHS in a statement. He was ordered to be removed from the United States -- you better sit down for this -- in May 1996. The Clinton administration sprung him loose. Between March 2025 and June 2026, Minnesota has received 67 pardon requests that cite immigration woes as a reason for seeking forgiveness. Across all decisions made this year, the Minnesota board has approved an overwhelming 94% of pardons requested.
Of course, the Trump administration is in a glass house when it comes to throwing rocks about pardons. Among too many other examples, Trump has stirred the disgust of victims and law-and-order Republicans alike with pardons or commutations of:
- Joseph Schwartz, a nursing home operator in New York convicted of a $39 million tax fraud scheme
- Eliyahu Weinstein, a real estate developer who'd been convicted of a real estate Ponzi scheme; after his 24-year sentence was commuted after only a few months, he immediately started orchestrating a scheme in which he defrauded people who thought they were investing in deals to get scarce medical supplies to war-torn Ukraine
- Sholam Weiss, who was staring down an 845-year sentence for racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering, and transporting stolen goods, after defrauding an insurer and its elderly policyholders out of £91 million; he fled the US before he could be prosecuted and was convicted in absentia