Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has failed in his extraordinary effort to protect a Laotian rapist from deportation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed that he revoked Tue Lue Vang’s legal status and removed him from the United States. After repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl between 2002 and 2004, Vang insisted it was “a cultural thing.” Well, this is a “constitutional thing” that the Secretary of State, not the Governor of Minnesota, determines who may remain in the United States after such a serious offense.
Vang was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. An immigration judge issued Vang a final order of removal on October 31, 2006 after his conviction.
Minnesota’s Board of Pardons, composed of Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison, and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, granted his clemency. (They noted that the victim wrote a letter on his behalf.) They also pardoned another Laotian criminal illegal alien — a convicted armed robber — before he could be deported.
At the time, Walz wrongly referred to Vang as a “citizen”:
“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.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.
Rubio told Fox News:
“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. 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.”
He added, “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.”
Vang’s use of Laotian culture was notable for some of us who have spoken or written about “the cultural defense.”
I have long drawn the line in the use of the cultural defense on such violent acts. However, troubling outliers remain in the cases. In January 1985, Japanese immigrant Fumiko Kimura tried to commit oyako-shinju (or parent-child suicide) after learning of her husband’s infidelity. She walked her infant daughter and 4-year-old son in the frigid ocean off Santa Monica. The children drowned, but she was rescued. While she had lived in the United States for some 14 years, she claimed the cultural defense (even though oyako-shinju is illegal in Japan). She was successful. Kimura received just one year in jail and five years’ probation. She then reunited with her husband.
There have been several cases involving “marriage by capture.” We have had some cases related to the custom of zij poj niam, particularly in relation to the Hmong culture, where a man abducts a woman he intends to marry and takes her to his family home. The woman is expected to resist as a sign of her virtue.
In a prior case, Kong Moua, a Hmong tribesman, drove to the Fresno City College campus and kidnapped a young woman from her job in the student finance office. She took her to his cousin’s house, but the Hmong woman did not believe in the cultural practice and called police.
Charged with rape and kidnapping, the defense successfully claimed the cultural defense. It secured a lesser charge of false imprisonment, and then the judge sentenced Kong Moua to just 120 days in jail and fined him $1,000, with only $900 of that going to the victim as reparations.
It is unclear whether Vang was making such a claim, but most judges would reject it. The effort by Walz to keep him in the United States was equally dubious as a constitutional matter.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Just like Platner, completely out-of-the-blue… https://www.thecollegefix.com/therapists-warn-woke-ideology-undermining-cognitive-behavioral-therapy/
Noone
Walz – a lovely example of American Socialism at work everyday to make our America a third world S-hole one immigrant at a time!! Thank goodness at least one person with the POWER decided a scumbag criminal immigrant might not be an incremental addition to the melting pot! Now get the rest of them in chains on a military transport back to the Dung Heap they came from!
Planter’s nazi tattoo and rape allegations, Walz pardoning a serial child rapist, Jay Jones getting elected in VA after wishing two bullets in the head of his rival and death for his rivals young children, Democrats cheering the assassination of a conservative political commentator, and embracing men invading women’s locker rooms and showers.
There can be no denying the moral and spiritual rot at the core of the modern Democrat party.
OldManFromKS,
I would add, drag queen story hour, antisemite pro-Hamas protests, failure of public education and the demise of higher education into indoctrination camps, believe all women unless she is a Republican.
Walz could have pardoned the man at anytime during his tenure but he waited until deportation started to try to poke the US in the eye for politics. The Democrats need to live with the implications of their actions. If they are so wedded to protecting illegal immigrants then let them make that part of their nationwide platform. They should just say “No crime is so heinous that we, if granted power, will not protect them to alllow them to stay in the US permanently. That is our position and we expect democrat elected officials to support this.”
Let’s see how many votes that gets them if they are honest.
Rubio’s correct, but what I want a full throated explanation from walz and ellison as to why it was so urgent to keep this POS protected and free to roam the nation? The constitution is on the right side of this but the more important thing is to alert the citizenry just how putrid the democrat sanctuary policy is and the utter lack of moral fibre in democrat elected officials when it comes to doing the right thing by Americans – not illegals and foreign criminals living within our border. We need to have posted the graphic details with photos of the criminal and the victim for EACH piece of scum found by authorities then a very large PSA telling citizens who has just been released, what they were in for, and what sleazy prog politico set in to roam among them. Make everyone completely aware of what is happening daily.
No one owes you an explanation. What goes on in MN is not your business. You live in NY.
So if you live in the USA, what goes on in Cambodia or Rwanda or Auschwitz or Palestine is none of “your” business? Good to know
You can live in NY and have family in MN. Not a hard concept
We are ONE nation. Not 50 separate states. The constitution and the rule of law are a universal reuirement.
The enforcement of immigration law is a national issue. While we do not have alot of say in most laws in most states – we have the right to expect the rule of law.
Pardoning child rapists is disgusting.
Most o the Cultural defense cases cited are very disturbing.
If you come to the US – you agree to abide with our laws.
If you do not like those – work to change them – or leave.
BTW That was not what you were saying when Dodd was decided.
Aparently you think abortion is a universal right, but rape of children, kidnapping and murder are regionally acceptable ?
These self-righteous democrats keep on bringing up the lie regarding President Trump. They have plenty of examples on their “own side”. Remember Swalwell and the current example of Platner? Here’s the big one…Clinton and Monica Lewinsky? Sweep your own doorstep, democrats, before you say anything else regarding President Trump!
This “cultural thing” crap needs to stop NOW! When you come to the US, you are subject to US LAWS ONLY!!! If you want to live according to your native culture’s perverse traditions, then stay in that country!!! It really IS that simple!
That cultural thing you bemoan is not going away. It will get worse. Guaranteed. Sharia will be implemented soon.
Walz was more concerned the man paid taxes than his crimes against children.
I doubt that he paid any taxes either. Walz is just another demented Leftie.
Doubt? Got proof?
As you move down classes in the US they pay less and less in taxes. Generally people who rape children are in the lowest class. It is unlikely they pay taxes.
I agree.
The people who rape children, like Epstein and Trump, are in the very lowest class of humanity, and also manage to escape paying any significant taxes.
For once in his life, John Say is actually correct about something.
History has been made this day !!!!
Mark you calendar.
John Say is actually right about something.
Wonders will never cease!!!!
Dear Mr. Turley, I am thankful for Sec. of State Rubio. I am thankful that this terrible man is out of the country. There are many more, both men and women that need to be sent back to their homeland.
Merely deporting such people is hardly any punishment at all. He and all his fellow illegal rapists should be transported to an island where they can play their own game of “Lord of the Flies.” Let them experience brutal power first hand. It’s cultural, you know!
gdonaldallen,
If someone was from Chicago, walked up to this guy, shot him in the face, could he use the “It’s a Chicago culture thing,” defense?
Was the perp a USA citizen, then no. Stupid analogy BTW.
Actually a pretty good analogy. Street Justice is a cultural thing – it has been a US cultural thing and it is a chicago cultural thing.
You might want to watch “Death Wish” with Charles Bronson. Though I understand “Citizen Vigilante” is similar.
Or the whole “Dirty Harry” series.
Trump got a sexual abuse and multiple other abuses. So what’s the difference, both are scum.
But we voted one into office.
No we voted someone accused politically without credibility and the jury of the american people acuitted.
He was accused – without crediblity. Platner and Swallwell are credibly accused, the person in this article admitted to perving children and was convicted.
Rubio can not deport him without due process, and if he does not have a criminal conviction he can’t be deported. MAGAs cheered and made raspberries when their J6 attackers were pardoned and now can not be held accountable. Same thing here. Pardoning awful people is one of Trump’s specialties.
Really comparing people protesting to a child rapist?
So what’s the difference?
Many of us did not agree with the blanket pardon of January 6. But surely you’re not equating the rape of a 10-year-old child with people who walked in and around the Capital.
Maybe you should read more. There already was a deportation order
and here it is.
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/07/10/deported-dhs-removes-convicted-child-rapist-pardoned-minnesota-governor-tim-walz
OK, Sally. How about you take him in and provide housing? Or maybe he can just move in next door? have any minor daughters he can get to “know”? You blithely consign unknown people to living and interacting with cretins like this yet will YOU live with the results?
Provide? No one has an obligation to do so. Your rant is just noise.
Correct – the US has no obligation to this person either. He is not a citizen, he was ordered deported long ago. He is a criminal.
Since he’s not a citizen he can be deported.
Sally, the poor sexual predator is no longer in the US. So I guess Rubio can deport him thank God…. You may want to bring you ten year old daughter to visit him in Laos though. Probably would be a nice learning / cultural experience for you and your daughter. You know… get to experience different cultures first hand.
The “due process” for someone in the US illegally is – “Are you the person named in the deportation order ?”
Due process exists to protect our rights. Where there is no right at issue there is very little due process.
These people are being sent back to THEIR countries. They are not being sent to Gitmo or Alcatraz.
Good, dirtbag should have been gone years ago.
I was censored when I sarcastically said, Vang should have claimed religious right. Go figure…alla alla in free