After Democrat Tim Walz doubled down on his move to pardon a foreign child rapist prior to his deportation, the State Department took another swing at the Minnesota governor in an escalating back-and-forth.The Minnesota Board of Pardons, comprised of Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, granted clemency to Laotian national Tou Lue Vang, 42, on June 10.Vang was scheduled to be deported from the United States before the pardon."Governor Walz’s pardon of a convicted foreign sex offender was a grave and unconscionable betrayal of the very people he is supposed to defend," State Department Assistant Secretary Dylan Johnson told Fox News Digital.Minnesota Gov.
Tim Walz testifies during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in the U.S.Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 4, 2026.
The hearing examined alleged misuse of federal funds for Minnesota social services and Medicaid programs.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)WALZ, MINNESOTA BOARD OF PARDONS CLEARS CONVICTED ILLEGAL ALIEN CHILD SEX OFFENDER FACING DEPORTATION"Walz’s plot to sacrifice the safety of Americans on the altar of open borders was thwarted by Secretary Rubio.
Now this foreign criminal will never harm another American," he continued.Vang was convicted for repeatedly raping a 10-year-old 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."Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked Vang's visa earlier this month, and he was deported back to Laos.Walz defended the clemency move in a Tuesday press conference, contending that deportation of a convicted child rapist did not make the U.S.
safer."Did that make us any safer?" Walz questioned."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?"U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Sen.M...