Marco Rubio steps in after Tim Walz pardoned illegal alien child rapist before deportation

EXCLUSIVE: An illegal alien child rapist from Laos who was set for deportation until Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the State Board of Pardons granted him clemency has been removed from the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Digital.

Rubio stepped in to terminate Tue Lue Vang’s legal status in the U.S. and ensure that Walz’s actions would not create roadblocks for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removing him from the country.

“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,” Rubio said. “Tue 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,” Rubio lamented.

Vang was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He repeatedly raped the girl between 2002 and 2004, and told authorities after he was arrested that “it is a cultural thing… to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.”

Rubio told Fox News Digital, “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,” he continued. “Vang has now been removed from our country and will never pose a threat to any American ever again.”

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Minnesota’s Board of Pardons is composed of Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, who let Vang off the hook on June 10.

The nine-member Minnesota Clemency Review Commission (CRC) recommended the pardon to the board.

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“Being granted a pardon is a notable achievement and a reflection of the work you have done since your conviction,” a CRC member said in a letter to Vang informing him of his clemency.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) feared at the time that the move to pardon Vang would shield the criminal illegal alien from deportation.

“Governor Tim Walz’s decision to pardon an illegal alien convicted child rapist so he can remain in our country is disgusting,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said at the time. “These are the criminal illegal aliens he and his Minnesota sanctuary politicians are protecting.”

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In May, Walz and his board pardoned another Laotian criminal illegal alien — a convicted armed robber — before he could be deported.

Walz said at the time that Vang had become a “critical member of the community” since his release from prison, and falsely referred to him as a “citizen” of the United States.

“I can find no reason how Minnesota will be safer or better if Mr. Vang is deported to a country he has not been to since he was a child,” Walz said of the convicted child rapist. “I do not see how it would serve his family, nor the economic interest where we have a taxpaying citizen who is creating job growth and living a life free from any criminal activity.