ICE Deports Immigrant Who Was Pardoned for Sex Abuse Conviction

The Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that it had deported an immigrant just weeks after he received a pardon from Minnesota state officials for a 2005 conviction for sexually abusing a child.

The pardon last month from Minnesota’s pardon board, which includes the Democratic governor Tim Walz, effectively erased the criminal record of the man, Tou Lue Vang. Mr. Vang, 42, had come to the United States legally as a child, but because of his conviction, he lost permanent residency status and was issued a final removal order. Before his pardon, Mr. Vang had been facing imminent deportation to Laos.

Pardons, however, do not automatically safeguard against deportation.

It is unclear where Mr. Vang was sent or on what specific legal grounds he was deported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a video statement posted on X that Mr. Vang “has been removed from the United States” and that “because of our actions, this foreign criminal will never pose a threat to any American ever again.”

Mr. Vang and his family could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mr. Vang was around 18 when he first began abusing his victim, who was then 10. After his arrest in 2005, he blamed cultural norms in Thailand, according to the criminal complaint. He later pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct in a plea deal that spared him from serving time in prison.

He was ordered deported in 2006, but Laos had for many years refused to accept large numbers of deportees. Many ethnic Laotians and Hmong, including Mr. Vang, were allowed to remain in the United States on supervised release.