[FoxNews] Minnesota's Democratic governor on Wednesday pardoned an illegal alien previously convicted of armed robbery before he could be deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
| The state crime is armed robbery. But surely the federal crime is being in the country illegally — I can’t believe that a state governor can pardon that. |
Jai Vang, an illegal alien from Laos, was convicted of aiding and abetting and armed robbery in Hennepin County in 1994, according to FOX 9. The incident occurred when he was 18 years old.
He was arrested by ICE as part of Operation Metro Surge in the Minneapolis area in January, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) release from the time.
When Gov. Tim Walz learned of Vang's arrest by the federal government, and that Vang had requested clemency to avoid being deported in June, the governor called a special session of the state's Board of Pardons' Clemency Review Commission to ensure the case was reviewed before Vang's deportation could be completed.
The Clemency Review Commission, which was joined by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and state supreme court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, voted unanimously to pardon Van.
Yeah, that doesn't mean he can't still be deported. ICE and other federal immigration authorities aren't bound by that pardon; Walz can't pardon Vang for being an illegal alien.
It could complicate things, though. Vang reportedly has a family in Minnesota now, although their immigration status is uncertain, and he has not been accused or arrested for any crime since his release from prison. That could, in some circumstances, at least raise the bar for his deportation.
That still doesn't mean he's home free, either. He's still in the United States illegally.
The best answer for Jai Vang, assuming it's still open to him, would be to take the federal government's self-deportation deal, go back to Laos, and apply to return legally. That would regularize his presence in the United States. But one way or another, no matter how long he's been here, no matter how good a guy he's been since his release from prison, he needs to go back. Here's why, and I'm going to tell you:
If Tim Walz
 ...Kamala's smarmy-looking VP running mate, governor of Minnesota and self-admitted knucklehead, who decided to retire rather than to deploy with his National Guard unit, then claimed to have been in Iraq and Afghanistan. One man's socialism is another man's neighborliness. ...
gets away with this, if ICE and, by extension, the Trump administration lets this slide, then every blue-state governor will be issuing pardons like madmen to every illegal alien they can find, and then they'll go find more and pardon them, too. This isn't a tactic that we can allow. Immigration and border enforcement are federal policies, justly so, and must only be handled at that level.
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