The Trump administration has deported Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian national convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in Minnesota, roughly a month after the state's Democratic Governor Tim Walz pardoned him in an apparent attempt to prevent his removal from the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the deportation in a video posted to X on Friday morning, saying he had personally revoked Vang's legal status, after which federal agents took him into custody and removed him from the country. The case has become a political flashpoint, pitting the federal administration's immigration enforcement against a state governor's use of clemency powers.

According to Rubio, Vang, 42, was convicted of repeatedly abusing the child over the 2005 assault, had tried to pay his victim for her silence, and described his crimes as a "minor thing". Walz issued the pardon on 10 June, just days before Vang was scheduled to be deported, sparking public outrage. It remains unclear whether Vang has been returned to Laos or taken elsewhere, though the article states he was deported to Laos.