Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz this week defended his vote to pardon a convicted child sex offender who was then deported by the Trump administration, arguing the move did not make the public safer and questioning why federal authorities waited years to remove him.
Walz's remarks came after the Department of Homeland Security announced the deportation of Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian national convicted in 2006 of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl.
"Did that make us any safer? Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable?" the governor asked about Vang's deportation, KTTC reported.
"Did it improve the idea that we can't all be judged by our worst day? And I want to be very clear, these are horrific crimes. They often are."
Vang was pardoned in June by the Minnesota Board of Pardons, which includes Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson.
Responding to criticism Tuesday, Walz defended the board's decision, saying it considered multiple factors, including the victim's support for the pardon, Vang's rehabilitation, and the views of prosecutors and judges involved in the case.
"If you think this person should have been gone, why didn't you take them for the last 20 years?" Walz said, according to the Duluth News Tribune. "I think that's fundamentally unfair."
The Trump administration sharply rejected Walz's argument.
In a July 10 statement, the White House said Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked Vang's legal status before DHS deported him to Laos.
"Under President [Donald] Trump, criminal illegal aliens who rape children will be found, arrested, and removed — and Democrat politicians will not stand in the way," the White House said, accusing Walz and Ellison of attempting to provide "safe harbor" to a criminal illegal immigrant.
According to DHS, Vang entered the United States in 1994 and later was granted legal status during the Clinton administration. After his conviction, Vang was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but the sentence was stayed in favor of 30 years of supervised probation that included one year of local confinement. He served eight months at the Ramsey County correctional workhouse and was discharged from probation early in 2019.
After his 2006 conviction, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the country. Authorities said Vang repeatedly sexually abused the victim in St. Paul between 2002 and 2004, when he was between 18 and 20 years old. The abuse began when the victim was in fourth grade, and authorities said the two had sexual intercourse four to six times over that period. At one point, Vang allegedly attempted to justify his conduct as "a cultural thing."
Following Walz's comments, DHS responded on social media.
"For Tou Lue Vang this wasn't just one 'worst day' — it was YEARS of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl starting when she was 10," the agency wrote on X. "Just disgraceful."
Republican lawmakers also condemned Walz's defense.
Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., said removing a convicted child predator "does in fact make us safer," while House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., argued communities are safer when convicted child sex offenders are no longer free.
The criticism also crossed party lines. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a former prosecutor, said she would not have voted to pardon Vang.