Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz has once again found himself on the wrong side of law and order, this time by granting a full pardon to an illegal alien convicted of armed robbery.
The move conveniently [1] came just before Immigration and Customs Enforcement could deport the man back to Laos.
For many Minnesotans, it was another disturbing example of left-wing politicians putting criminal aliens ahead of American safety.
The man at the center of the controversy, Jai Vang, was convicted in 1994 of aiding and abetting armed robbery.
According to Fox 9, Vang committed the crime when he was eighteen years old.
After serving his sentence, Vang was released, but his illegal status never changed.
He remained in the United States, raising a family and running a small business for years until ICE agents caught up with him earlier this year.
ICE had arrested Vang as part of Operation Metro Surge, a federal effort targeting violent criminal aliens across the Minneapolis area.
It was a perfectly routine enforcement operation, but that did not stop Walz from jumping in to undermine it the moment he heard about it.
When Walz learned of Vang’s arrest and pending deportation, he sprang into action, calling an emergency session of Minnesota’s Board of Pardons Clemency Review Commission so they could get a last-minute review in before ICE put Vang on a plane.
The Board, made up of Walz himself, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, unanimously voted to pardon Vang.
For the three progressive officials, it was the perfect photo op and a chance to frame themselves as moral heroes saving a “community member” from deportation.
Never mind that this “community member” is not a citizen and had already been convicted of a violent felony.
During the hearing, Walz even referred to Vang as a “citizen,” an inaccurate and telling slip that revealed where his loyalties truly lie.
“I can find no reason how Minnesota will be safer or better if Mr. Vang is deported to a country he has not been to since he was a child,” Walz said during the hearing.
He went on to praise Vang as a “taxpaying citizen” who is “creating job growth.”
To conservatives, that kind of statement is exactly why blue state leadership has become synonymous with chaos and contempt for federal law.
Ellison, who joined the commission meeting by phone, also voiced support for the pardon after allegedly reviewing the file.
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His quick approval came as little surprise, considering Ellison’s track record of siding with far-left activists over law enforcement.
Federal officials were not amused.
ICE sources confirmed Vang was legally subject to deportation and had already exhausted his appeals.
Under federal law, a pardon by a state governor does not alter immigration status. That means the pardon was symbolic at best and obstructionist at worst.
This is not the first time Walz has gone after federal immigration enforcement.
During Operation Metro Surge, he accused ICE agents of behaving like “modern-day Gestapo,” a stunningly offensive remark that trivialized the Holocaust and demonized American officers enforcing federal law.
Then Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons publicly called on Walz to stop endangering agents with inflammatory rhetoric, saying that if the governor dislikes immigration laws, “he’s free to advocate that Congress change them.”
For those keeping count, Walz’s latest maneuver shows exactly how far Democrat leaders will go to thwart border and deportation laws put in place to protect American communities.
His pardon of a convicted armed robber, for no reason other than that the individual has stayed out of trouble since finishing his sentence, sends a clear message to other criminal aliens: Minnesota is open for business.
Supporters of the pardon frame it as compassion, but to struggling Americans who see their neighborhoods filling with illegal immigrants, it looks more like calculated politics.
They see politicians bending the rules for noncitizens while law-abiding citizens face rising crime and higher taxes.
The double standard grows wider each time left-wing governments treat law enforcement like the enemy and criminal aliens like campaign volunteers.
The Walz administration has spent years positioning Minnesota as a sanctuary haven.
From refusing law enforcement cooperation with ICE detainers to expanding taxpayer benefits for illegals, Walz has steadily reshaped the state’s landscape into one hostile to traditional rule of law.
This pardon is simply the latest chapter in that story.
The debate will not end here. DHS and ICE officials are reviewing their options and could continue deportation proceedings regardless of the state’s pardon.
Federal law, after all, does not bow to the whims of one governor with national ambitions and a progressive agenda.
Yet activists will surely spin the case as a victory over “Trump-era policies” rather than what it really is, a blow to justice.
For ordinary Minnesotans just trying to live in safe communities, Walz’s decision serves as one more reminder that their leaders are more concerned about shielding lawbreakers than backing the rule of law.
When a convicted armed robber gets a personal rescue from the governor, all while ICE is vilified for doing its job, Americans have every right to ask whose side their government is really on.