The Trump administration said Friday it had deported an illegal migrant from Laos who was pardoned last month by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz following his conviction for raping a 10-year-old girl.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a video posted to X that he had revoked Tou Lue Vang’s legal status earlier this week following his clemency receipt June 10.
“As a result, federal agents took him into custody, and as of today, he has been removed from the United States,” Rubio said. “Because of our action, this foreign criminal will never pose a threat to any American ever again.”
Vang had been granted a pardon by the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission (CRC) — headed by Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson — erasing his criminal conviction.
The predator had been arrested in 2005 and copped to repeatedly assaulting the girl, blaming cultural norms for his conduct.
“He even tried to pay his victim for her silence,” Rubio said, “and called those heinous crimes ‘minor things.’”
Vang pleaded guilty in 2006 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and received a removal order that same year.
Laos has no formal repatriation agreement with the US, but the Trump administration has stepped up pressure on the Southeast Asian nation to take in more deportees in the face of potential sanctions and travel bans.
