Minnesota Board Pardons 42-Year-Old Sex Offender, Blocking Deportation to Laos

Q: When a state pardon clashes with federal law, who decides if an immigrant gets to stay?

Federal authorities ultimately decide whether an immigrant can stay, even after a state pardon. A state board or governor can pardon a state crime, and that can matter a great deal. In Minnesota, a pardon is meant to set aside the conviction and clear the state criminal record. That may give someone like Tou Lue Vang a stronger argument against removal because it can undercut the state conviction that triggered deportation proceedings. But immigration is governed by federal law, not state law. The Department of Homeland Security, immigration judges, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and ultimately the federal courts decide whether a person is removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act. If federal law still treats the case as a deportable conviction, a state pardon does not automatically stop deportation. That is the key legal tension in cases like Vang’s. Federal immigration law often uses its own definition of “conviction,” including guilty pleas, and it does not always give full effect to state expungements or record-clearing measures. Some deportation grounds can be waived by a full pardon, but not all, especially where federal law classifies the offense as an aggravated felony or a crime involving abuse of a minor. So a state pardon can help, sometimes decisively, but it is not the final word. The final word belongs to the federal immigration system, subject to review in the federal courts.

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 1

June 10 brought a pardon for Tou Lue Vang, 42, wiping his record and giving him a path to fight imminent deportation to Laos.
Vang had pleaded guilty in 2005 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a child who was 10 when the abuse began, though a plea deal spared him prison time.
Letters to the three-member board from Vang and the victim backed clemency, with Vang expressing regret and saying he wanted to remain in the US with his wife and six children.
Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson approved the reprieve, which Trump administration officials attacked as shielding deportable foreign criminals.