The Department of Homeland Security deported Tou Lue Vang on Friday, the Laotian national Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pardoned last month in an effort to keep him in the country.
Vang, 42, entered the United States illegally and built a life in Minnesota that included, by his own admission, sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty in 2006 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct after admitting he abused the girl over four years, starting in 2002. When police arrested him in 2005, he offered no denial. Instead, he told investigators that marrying and having sex with girls as young as 12 was a cultural practice.
The Department of Homeland Security said Vang also offered his victim $10 to stay quiet while the abuse continued.
By pleading guilty, Vang avoided prison, but lost legal status. A judge issued him a final removal order in October 2006, and under any normal enforcement regime, that would have been the end of the story. Instead, Vang stayed in the country for nearly two decades, until Trump administration agents caught up with him last year through Operation Metro Surge, a Minnesota-based immigration enforcement effort.
Records show Vang applied for a pardon in July 2025, anticipating his inevitable deportation. Walz granted it through the state's three-member pardon board, which also includes Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Chief Justice Natalie Hudson. The pardon wiped Vang's conviction from his record entirely.
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