MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is blasting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Board of Pardons after officials granted clemency to a Laotian immigrant previously convicted in an armed robbery case and recently taken into ICE custody.
DHS said Jai Vang (pictured at top), a native of Laos, received a pardon from Walz and the Minnesota Board of Pardons on May 27, 2026.
According to DHS, Vang’s criminal record includes felony convictions for robbery and robbery of a business with a gun, along with a conviction for driving under the influence of liquor.
Federal officials said Vang had been under a final order of removal for nearly 30 years. A Department of Justice immigration judge issued that final removal order on May 23, 1996, after Vang’s first felony conviction. DHS said Vang appealed, but the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed the appeal on May 7, 1997.
Vang was later released by the Clinton administration, according to DHS.
ICE arrested Vang on May 14, 2026, before the Minnesota pardon was granted.
“It’s absolutely insane that Governor Tim Walz and Minnesota sanctuary politicians would pardon this violent criminal illegal alien, whose criminal history includes convictions for armed robbery and driving under the influence,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a DHS statement. “DHS is calling on Governor Walz to stop these dangerous political games and to stop prioritizing criminal illegal aliens over American citizens.”
The case has quickly become part of a larger national fight over immigration enforcement, crime, state clemency powers and whether old criminal convictions should still trigger deportation decades later.
Minnesota officials who supported the pardon argued that Vang’s conviction was from the 1990s, when he was a teenager, and that he had since built a family and business life in Minnesota. Local Minnesota reporting said the state board pointed to his years without serious new criminal convictions, his family and his work as a painter and carpenter.
Walz said during the pardon discussion that immigration status or pending deportation should not automatically determine whether clemency is granted. He also argued that Minnesota would not be safer or better if Vang were deported to a country he had not been to since childhood.
DHS, however, framed the pardon as an example of Democratic state officials interfering with federal immigration enforcement and protecting a noncitizen with a violent criminal record.
The Minnesota Board of Pardons includes the governor, the Minnesota attorney general and the chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. The board voted unanimously to pardon Vang, according to Minnesota reporting.
The pardon may affect Vang’s immigration case, but it does not automatically erase the political and legal controversy surrounding it. Federal immigration law can treat certain criminal convictions, especially violent felonies and aggravated felonies, as grounds for removal. Pardons can sometimes alter immigration consequences, depending on the conviction and legal circumstances.
The move also comes as the Trump administration has been stepping up immigration enforcement and publicly targeting sanctuary-style policies it says protect criminal illegal aliens from removal.
DHS said Vang entered the United States illegally at an unknown date and location.
The department is now calling on Minnesota officials to stop using clemency in cases involving immigrants facing deportation for past violent crimes.
Supporters of the pardon say Vang’s case shows how old convictions can still tear families apart decades later. Critics say the case shows exactly why violent offenders under final removal orders should not receive last-minute political relief.
For now, Vang’s case stands as another flashpoint in the national debate over crime, immigration and who gets a second chance.