Until very recently, Tou Lue Vang was a Laotian national and illegal immigrant living in Minnesota who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a child and was subject to a final removal order issued by a federal immigration judge.
That description still applies, except for the part about his living in Minnesota. Thanks to an intervention by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vang has finally been deported from the United States.
One might assume that, regardless of the fraught political brawl over immigration enforcement, political figures of all stripes would agree that this is an appropriate outcome for an illegal immigrant convicted of sexually abusing a minor. He was illegally present in this country, violated a child here, and then enjoyed full due process.
This should be an easy one, right?
Wrong.
Rubio was compelled to intervene because Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) chose to pardon Vang, evidently for the explicit purpose of preventing his deportation.
Vang was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement late last year, but a judge ordered his release in February. Last month, the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission voted to grant him a pardon, which Walz then executed.
Following this outrageous decision, Rubio stepped in. Here is how America’s chief diplomat described his decision:
“Just weeks ago, a foreign child rapist was freed to once again endanger America’s children after receiving a pardon from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Tou Lue Vang admitted to committing heinous crimes against a 10-year-old girl in Minnesota. He attempted to pay his victim for her silence and dismissed his acts of child abuse as a ‘minor thing.’ Just days before he was scheduled to be deported, the Minnesota Governor pardoned him, setting him free to endanger American families once again. Americans should never have to live in fear that foreign sex predators — shielded from deportation by their own elected officials — could endanger them or their children. That’s why I terminated his legal status in the United States. Vang has now been removed from our country and will never pose a threat to any American ever again.”
Walz, who did everything within his power to allow this illegal immigrant convicted of sexually assaulting a child to remain in Minnesota, was incensed.
“Did that make us any safer?” he asked. “Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable? Did it improve the idea that we can’t all be judged by our worst day?”
Yes, removing a sexual abuser of children from the community and the country makes Americans safer. How can anyone deny this? Really, how?
And, actually, yes, we judge people by their worst days all the time. Justice requires it.
It is one thing for a boss to forgive an employee’s uncharacteristic profane outburst because the employee was having a difficult day. It is another for a police officer to decide not to write a ticket because a speeding driver was going through a difficult time.
Mercy can be appropriate and good, of course. But describing the felony sexual assault of a minor as merely an offender having his “worst day” is utterly revolting.
Walz’s morally bankrupt formulation does not even apply to this case, in which the child was abused repeatedly over the course of three years. The convicted abuser also tried to pay his victim for her silence.
When caught, he downplayed his actions as a “minor thing,” dismissed his violations as a “cultural thing,” and blamed his victim, suggesting to police that she should be arrested.
This was not someone having a bad day. This was a grave sexual assault committed by an unrepentant, victim-blaming illegal immigrant predator. And Walz actively attempted to help him walk free.
Walz, mind you, is not some fringe figure. He is the very definition of a mainstream Democrat: a sitting governor and his party’s most recent vice presidential nominee.
His actions in this case were also applauded by the editorial board of the state’s major newspaper, which decried the Trump administration for turning the child abuser into a “political punching bag.”
The board shoehorned a whataboutist Jan. 6 non sequitur into its chilling editorial, which concluded, “Cheers to Walz for standing behind the pardon.”
It is breathtaking and radicalizing to witness a political movement affirmatively oppose the deportation of a convicted child sex offender who was subject to a final removal order.
For all its caterwauling about “due process” and “ICE overreach,” none of that applies here. What its members are once again revealing is that they are broadly opposed to immigration enforcement, even against convicted felons.
The rule of law means nothing to them. They prioritize resistance posturing over virtually every other consideration, including the safety of children. This is a dangerous, lawless movement.
Finally, an African migrant has been arrested in Minnesota after allegedly shooting three women to death over a parking dispute. He reportedly told police that he believed he had been “treated unfairly because he is black and an immigrant,” as though that would be a reasonable excuse for committing a triple homicide.
Gov. Walz, are we allowed to judge this man based on his “worst day”?