US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Digital that Tue Lue Vang, a Laotian national living in the US, has been deported after Minnesota’s pardon board granted him clemency shortly before he was due to be removed. The case matters because it has become a political flashpoint over the balance between state clemency decisions and federal immigration enforcement, as well as wider arguments about public safety and immigration policy.

According to the article, Vang was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a 10-year-old girl, with the offences said to have taken place between 2002 and 2004. Fox News reports that Minnesota’s Board of Pardons, made up of Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, approved clemency, which Rubio said risked obstructing deportation; he said he then terminated Vang’s legal status so DHS could remove him. Rubio also said Vang has now been deported and will not be allowed to pose a threat in the US again.