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Minnesota's pardon board handed a convicted child sex abuser a get-out-of-deportation-free card, and the Trump administration was right to override it. Tou Lue Vang abused a 10-year-old girl, blamed it on cultural norms and had a federal removal order since 2006 — a state pardon doesn't erase that moral reality. Secretary Rubio's move to revoke his status and deport him is exactly the kind of accountability that sanctuary politicians refuse to deliver.
Deporting a pardoned, rehabilitated man who completed treatment, never reoffended and raised six children in the U.S. may seem easy to defend, but hard cases make bad precedent. By using an especially disturbing crime — one that was already dealt with at the state level — to expand its powers, the Trump administration is laying the groundwork to target immigrants with far less serious records — and even those with none.