Rubio Clears Path for Deportation After Controversial Walz Pardon
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that the Trump administration has deported Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian national convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, after revoking his legal status just weeks after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and the state’s clemency board granted him a pardon.
In a video announcing the deportation, Rubio criticized the Minnesota pardon, saying Americans “must never be forced by their elected leaders to live alongside foreign sex criminals who have no right to begin with to reside in our country.”
He added that revoking Vang’s legal status allowed federal agents to take him into custody and remove him from the country.
“This foreign criminal will never pose a threat to any American ever again,” he said.
DHS also confirmed the deportation and released a photo appearing to show Vang boarding a removal flight under ICE escort.
Vang was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl between 2002 and 2004, beginning when she was 10 years old, according to DHS.
Authorities said he offered the victim $10 to remain silent and later told investigators the abuse was “a cultural thing.”
According to the criminal complaint, Vang admitted to sexually assaulting the victim multiple times and claimed she shared responsibility for the assaults.
He received a 12-year prison sentence, served time in a county workhouse, and remained on supervised probation for years rather than serving prison time.
Following his conviction, an immigration judge issued a final order of removal in 2006 after Vang lost his legal status.
However, Laos initially refused to accept his return, and federal authorities released him under ICE supervision in 2007.
He remained in the United States for nearly two decades before ICE detained him again in late 2025.
Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered his release from immigration custody, ruling the government had not adequately justified his continued detention at the time of his arrest, according to The Washington Times.
On June 10, the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission, consisting of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, unanimously voted to pardon Vang.
State officials said the board considered evidence of rehabilitation, expressions of remorse, and a letter from the victim supporting clemency.
In his pardon application, Vang also acknowledged the possibility that he faced detention and deportation without clemency.
Ramsey County prosecutors opposed the pardon, according to the American Almanac.
Federal officials maintained that Minnesota’s clemency decision did not prevent immigration authorities from enforcing federal removal laws.
DHS criticized the clemency decision, saying it attempted to shield a convicted child sex offender from deportation, while Rubio instead revoked Vang’s legal status through federal authority before immigration officials carried out the removal.
Rubio did not identify the country that ultimately accepted Vang, though multiple reports indicated he was deported to Laos.
The case has drawn national attention as another flashpoint in the ongoing debate over the intersection of state clemency powers and federal immigration enforcement.
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