Vang dodged a jail sentence, receiving 30 years’ probation instead. A deportation order was issued as well. It was not enforced because the US government had no agreement with the government of Laos at that time.
How Vang Secured a Pardon
In the intervening years, Vang started a family. He requested a pardon partly on the basis that he did not want the threat of deportation hanging over their heads.
“If I sent away, we lose everything. My children will lose their home, and they will lose their education, they will grow up without a father”, Vang said in the clemency hearing. That argument carried enough weight with Walz that he brought it up to reporters.
This June, the state Board of Pardons, consisting of Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, issued Vang a pardon for his crimes. Though Ellison has insisted the pardon was not issued to stave off deportation, the timing and Vang’s own words strongly suggest otherwise.
In any event, it did not work. ICE rounded Vang up in early July and he was deported in short order.
Trump Administration’s United Front
The Department of Homeland Security was not inclined to let this one go, and neither were other elements of the Trump administration. Through news releases, videos, social media and in the press, the administration is presenting a united front in this matter.
DHS, for instance, took great exception to Walz’s exculpatory words at the press conference. “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. Just disgraceful”, the agency wrote on X.
ICE is seen as the more militant enforcement arm of the federal government when it comes to the nation’s immigration laws. Sometimes the agency’s role is soft-pedaled to avoid ruffling the wrong feathers, but not this time. The government released a photo of Vang with ICE agents on both sides of him in front of the open door of a plane with a caption that read simply: “Tou Lue Vang being deported.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio played a role as well. In a 10 June video, Rubio explained that he used the powers of his office to get around the pardon by revoking Vang’s “legal status in the United States, and as a result, federal agents took him into custody, and as of today, he has been removed from the United States”.
Rubio further said that 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”.
Americans Want You to Leave Now
The Republicans are firmly united on this matter in part because there is no downside to it. Some issues in American politics are said to be 80/20 issues, where 80% of the population is on one side and 20% is on the other. These are overwhelmingly popular positions, in other words.
Child rape is more like a 99/Please Do Not Shoot Me issue in America. There is strong support in many states for subjecting those who rape children to the death penalty. A past, closely divided Supreme Court ruled against the death penalty in such cases.
This is in a way analogous to the frustrations that the UK’s current Labour government faces in trying to deport the head of one of its evil grooming gangs, where the courts hold the public consensus back. Except that the American consensus is an order of magnitude more punitive.
Most members of Walz’s party recognize this reality and either accept it or agree with it as sound moral hygiene.
That is why Lindsey Granger, co-host of The Hill’s Rising morning program, called it “just foolish for [Walz] to jump into this conversation”. She said it “boils my blood” that Walz and too many Democrats struggle to draw a distinction between peaceful migrants and dangerous, predatory criminals.
“It's like easy to be on the right side of history with immigration”, she said. “Allow this country to grow, allow it to flourish in a variety of industries, allow people to come in and be everything from the highest skilled workers to farm laborers. But if people are molesting and raping children, they should go.”
The point is one that is rooted in shame and thus difficult to argue against. Perhaps, after seeing how badly it worked out for Walz, fewer will try.
