It was as predictable as the sun’s rising in the east.
After Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bagged two dozen illegal-alien, Asian sex criminals in Minnesota, the Minnesota Star Tribune sided with the criminals.
All that sex abuse by the soon-to-be-deported Laotians and Hmong, the newspaper reported, was just a “cultural misunderstanding” because they often marry young back home.
Not so, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported. Truth is, they are dangerous sex criminals.
Newspaper Story
The Star Tribune’s tale of woe begins predictably:
Two dozen Hmong men who have lived in Minnesota for decades are being held in Minnesota and Iowa jails awaiting deportation, according to the executive director of a Twin Cities-based Hmong advocacy organization.
The St. Paul field office for Homeland Security Investigations recently posted on X the names and arrest photos of men from Laos or Thailand that the agency said were living in the country illegally and have criminal records. The posts said most are in their 40s and labeled them as convicted sex offenders.…
But some members of the Twin Cities’ Hmong community, at 80,000 the largest urban Hmong population in the country, see the deportations in a more nuanced way.
Undoubtedly they do, but, indeed, the men are sex offenders.
The paper then cited the case of one Chia Vue. He “has a criminal record,” the paper confessed:
As a minor, he was convicted as an adult in 1998 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and felony for the benefit of a gang. He was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Since then, he’s had several other convictions, mostly for firearms-related charges. All his convictions are more than a decade old.
That anodyne account doesn’t quite tell the whole story, which DHS revealed in rather more detail in its release that blasted the write-up.
In fact, Vue molested a child under 13 and “was also convicted of committing a crime for the benefit of a gang,” DHS reported. On October 31, 2003 — 22 years ago — a judge ordered him deported.
Of course, Vue didn’t go anywhere. Instead, he continued building his criminal resumé:
On March 24, 2009, Vue was arrested for possessing a pistol/assault weapon in Pine County Sheriff’s Office.
On June 11, 2010, he was arrested for criminal sexual conduct in first degree by Pine County Sheriff’s Office, MN.
On August 3, 2011, Vue was arrested for dangerous weapons and domestic assault by St. Paul PD.
On December 30, 2011, he was charged with Violation of Domestic Abuse no contact order by Bloomington, MN, PD.
On April 26, 2012, Vue was arrested for Felon Convicted Crime of Violence by St. Paul, PD, MN.
The other cultural enrichers whom DHS arrested in June include these fine gentlemen:
Nine are Laotians or Hmong:
- Pao Angelo Vang, 2nd degree sexual assault of a child;
- Thong Lao, 2nd degree sexual assault of a child;
- Va Vang, convicted of 1st degree sexual assault;
- Xiong Pao Vang, convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14;
- Yia Xiong, 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct;
- Pok Vue, 4th degree criminal sexual conduct;
- Vang Neng Lao, 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct;
- Hue Nai Cheng, 1st degree criminal sexual conduct; and,
- Dao Moua, 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct.
Two are Thais:
- Tou Pao Lee, soliciting a minor; and,
- Yee Shae, 1st degree sexual abuse of a minor.
“These pedophiles and sex offenders are the sickos our brave ICE law enforcement are putting their lives on the line to arrest and remove from American communities,” said Homeland Security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin:
Governor Walz and his fellow sanctuary politicians are fighting to keep these sex offenders and other criminal illegal aliens in our country. Instead of comparing ICE to the Nazi-Gestapo, Governor Walz should be thanking our law enforcement for removing these pedophiles from Minnesota.
Star Tribune: But the Crimes Were So Long Ago
After detailing the arrest of career criminal Vue, the newspaper explained the illegals’ plight.
“Some Hmong Minnesotans say they suspect many of the decades-old arrests that led to the deportations were a result of Hmong culture encouraging girls as young as 14 to date and even marry older men, which is against U.S. law,” the newspaper reported:
Their lives in Southeast Asia often lacked education, several Hmong Minnesotans said, and it’s not uncommon that they didn’t understand American laws. They say these men served their time and that deportation amounts to double jeopardy.
The deportations, of course, aren’t “double jeopardy.” Then again, the “Hmong Minnesotans” likely don’t know that because “it’s not uncommon that they didn’t understand American law.”
That misunderstanding aside, the Star Tribune plodded along. Citing the Sahan Journal, the newspaper fretted that some of the arrestees were minors when they committed the sex crimes and had served their sentences. Then the reporters hustled off to the Hmong “community” to find the exception that proves the rule.
“Hmong Minnesotans cautioned against painting these arrestees with a broad brush,” the paper reported:
Cher Her of St. Paul, a surgical instrument repair technician who was there buying medicinal herbs, said people with extensive, violent criminal records deserve deportation.
But he pointed out the cultural complications in a Hmong culture where people often marry young. Her married at 16; he’s now 41, married to the same woman and has eight kids. He’s been a U.S. citizen for decades. He worries how shifting deportation tactics could affect his brother, who got in trouble with the law as a teen but has since matured and has a job, wife and family.
“It’s got to be case by case,” he said. “If they have a family and kids and made a life here, why didn’t you deport them back then? Are you going to refund them the past 10 years of their lives?”
The Star Tribune did not seek comment from Walz.
