Tim Walz Pardons ILLEGAL Armed Robber To Spite Trump — And Calls Him A 'Citizen' While Doing It

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Democrat Governor Tim Walls has pardoned an illegal alien convicted of armed robbery in order to, you guessed it, release him before immigration customs enforcement could deport him to Laos.

[00:00:16]Here's uh Governor Tim Walls making this announcement and being very, very, very smug about it.

[00:00:23]I now bring this special meeting of the Minnesota Board of Pardons to order pursuant to Minnesota statute 13 delta.04 required notice has been provided. Uh this is extraordinary circumstance which brings us together to consider an application we had originally planned to consider at our scheduled June board meeting on Thursday. And I may add uh the board of pardons consisting of myself uh as governor of Minnesota, chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court Hudson. And joining us online is Attorney General Keith Ellison who is with us online.

[00:00:58]>> President, >> good morning uh to you, Attorney General. On Thursday, May 14th, we received notice that one applicant, Jai Bang, was taken into ICE custody and is scheduled to be deported from the United States before the next board of pardons meeting. To preserve and assert Minnesota's sovereign state interest in enforcing our own criminal laws and the constitutional rights through the clemency process, I've called this meeting to consider the application.

[00:01:26]>> So, what's actually going on in this particular situation? So this uh individual here uh that was convicted of armed robbery, this is Jai Vang, he's an illegal alien from Laos, was convicted of aiding and abetting an armed robbery in Henipin County in 1994 according to Fox 9 and the incident occurred when he was 18 years old. Uh now he has sought clemency because immigration customs enforcement according to the laws of the United States. If you are convicted here while an illegal immigrant uh of committing a a violent crime then you are to be deported from the United States. If you're not a US citizen you you know then no you don't just magically get a golden pass to stay here uh if you are an illegal immigrant here in the country. So, Governor Tim Walls is saying, "Well, I mean, yeah, he's an illegal, but we can't just let ICE deport him." And so brought forward this argument said, "Well, we were going to pardon him anyway," which um I mean, it is Minnesota, but anyway, we're going to pardon him anyway, but we're going to pardon him now. We're going to rush the pardon so that Immigration Customs Enforcement can't move forward with uh deporting him. He was arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement as part of Operation Metro Surge. And again, he had been in prison and he had served his time, but because he was here in the country illegally and he was picked up by Immigration Customs Enforcement, he then from the ICE detainment sent a letter of to Tim Walls saying, "Hey, they're going to deport me as an illegal alien already because I've committed crimes while I was here in the United States." again that whole Lake and Riley act coming into play. So Tim Walls is trying to just expune and wipe away from the record, the thing he was convicted of in court because if he's convicted of being criminal for, for example, in this case, armed robbery, then he has to be deported from the United States. So Tim is making the case, well then we're going to from Minnesota wipe away any of the stain from his record because otherwise ICE is going to uphold US federal law.

[00:03:36]So again, regular scummyiness from Governor Tim Walls. Uh during the hearing, Walls inaccurately referred to Vang as a citizen and also said that he had become a quote critical member of the community since his release from prison. Uh yeah, I I I got to say um first of all, great reporting from the New York Post. Second of all, critical member of the community in Minneapolis is nothing special. Given that a lot of critical members of Minneapolis are usually doing things like defrauding autism funds or Medicaid funds or feeding our children funds or wiring oodles, canoodles, and toaster strudles of money to Somalia, you know, just old classic Minnesota activities.

[00:04:18]You guys have probably done some of them yourselves. Um, no, absolutely not. Now, Walls did say, quote, "I can find no reason how Minnesota will be safer or better if Mr. Vang is deported to a country he's not been to since he was a child. I do not see how it would serve his family, nor the economic interest where we have a taxpaying citizen who is creating job growth and living a life free from any criminal activity." It's the last phrase there that I I don't particularly care for. Also, just because something would negatively impact a family, doesn't mean you ignore federal law. It doesn't. A guy who is holding his family hostage, maybe it would be worse for the the children if that father holding his family hostage.

[00:05:02]Maybe it would be worse for them if, you know, the father wasn't there anymore.

[00:05:06]That doesn't mean the SWAT team shouldn't go into the house and rescue those who are are again being held hostage by a father and friend of the community. Having a family doesn't mean that you get to commit more crimes or ignore federal law.

[00:05:20]Again, at any point in time, any point in time, including in prison, this individual, this Mr. Vang could have gone through the opening processes of seeking citizenship from the United States. And did he choose to do so? No, he did not. So, and this is where again the last phrase is two of these last assertions by walls are just complete bull crap. Number one, we have a taxpaying citizen. No, he's not a citizen. See, if he was a citizen, he wouldn't be set to be deported to Laos.

[00:05:52]See, it's kind of cool that I immigration customs enforcement is enforcing the law regarding citizens. I I know I bizarrely strange in indeed. Uh and he's also suggesting uh that he's creating job growth and living a life free from any criminal activity. free of any criminal activity except for the armed robbery he chose to commit.

[00:06:17]Actions do in fact have consequences.

[00:06:18]And if you are here as an illegal immigrant, one of the purposes of things like the Lake and Riley Act and other federal statutes, by the way, suggest that if you are caught and you are in the either the state or the federal prison system and you are found not to be a citizen, the taxpayer should not have to pay money to pay for your room and board here any more than we already do.

[00:06:41]So exciting stuff from again the major policy proposals. And why bring this up as a, you know, kind of the head and beginning story here? This is happening all over the country. It's happening all the way from Los Angeles in the state of California, all the way over to Massachusetts to Illinois. It's not something that voters are particularly interested in seeing repetitive headlines for moving into the midterm