Gov. Tim Walz is defending his vote to pardon a man convicted of molesting a 10-year-old child more than 20 years ago.

Last week, the Trump administration deported Tou Lue Vang despite a pardon approved by Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson in their role on the Board of Pardons.

Walz said the victim’s advocacy for Vang factored in his decision to grant the pardon.

“I can tell you in these pardons, one of the overriding factors that continuously influences the decision — certianly of me, I can’t speak for the rest of the board, but looks like that — depends on where the victims are at,” Walz said.

The governor emphasized that this action “didn’t let this person out of jail.” Vang completed his sentence — served entirely as supervised probation — in 2019.

Walz said his vote to pardon Vang was not an attempt to prevent him from being deported, though Vang is at least the third convicted felon with pending removal orders to be pardoned in Minnesota this year.

In May, the Board of Pardons unanimously granted clemency for At “Ricky” Chandee, who was convicted of second-degree assault in 1993; and Jai Vang, a Laotian man who was convicted of aggravated robbery in 1994.

On the same day the board considered a pardon for Vang, four others who had applied for pardons — including three who were facing deportation — were denied. Brian Evans, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said they lacked victim support.

In all cases, the Department of Homeland Security criticized the pardons as attempts to “take away qualifying convictions” for removal from the U.S.

Vang was deported anyway.

Walz questioned whether Vang’s removal improved outcomes in Minnesota.

“I guess the question I would as is, did that make us any safer? 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?” Walz said.

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