Walz Pardoned a Child Sex Offender to Stop His Deportation, But Marco Rubio Deported Him Anyway

The Minnesota Board of Pardons — a three-person panel that includes the governor — granted Vang a full pardon in June. The pardon was based in part on a letter from his victim forgiving him. That letter is her right to write. It doesn’t change what he did. It doesn’t restore the childhood he took from her. And it absolutely does not obligate the United States government to allow a convicted child sex offender with no legal right to remain in this country to stay here indefinitely.

Walz decided otherwise. The pardon removed Vang’s conviction and, in the governor’s apparent calculation, should have blocked his deportation.

Marco Rubio had a different calculation. The Secretary of State revoked Vang’s legal status entirely — rendering the pardon irrelevant to the deportation question — and ICE took him into custody. As of Thursday, Tou Lue Vang has been removed from the United States and will never be permitted to return.

Rubio’s statement was direct and deserves to be read in full: “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’s right. This should not have been a difficult decision. A non-citizen convicted of sexually abusing a child — a child — has no legal or moral claim to remain on American soil. The pardon removes the conviction from Minnesota’s books. It does not create a right to citizenship. It does not override federal immigration authority. It does not undo what he did to that little girl.