DHS Slams Minnesota Pardons Board for Freeing Laotian Immigrant with Assault Convictions

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security criticized Minnesota officials after the state's Board of Pardons unanimously voted to pardon a Laotian national with multiple assault convictions. DHS warned the move could block his long-standing deportation order.

Xayasounethone Chandee, an illegal immigrant from Laos, was convicted of assault in 1992. An immigration judge issued him a final order of removal in 1995 after the jury's decision.

Chandee was not deported despite the order. He faced conviction again in 2008 on two felony counts of aggravated assault with a weapon.

DHS said the Minnesota Board of Pardons' decision to pardon Chandee could now thwart his removal from the U.S.

"The Minnesota Board of Pardons’ unanimous decision pardoning an illegal alien convicted of three violent assaults is absolute INSANITY," DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. "Chandee lost his green card following his convictions for aggravated assault with a weapon. Following his criminal convictions, he was placed in removal proceedings and issued a final order of removal by a judge."

"Minnesota's sanctuary politicians' pardon took away this violent thug’s qualifying convictions that made him removable from the U.S.," she continued.

Chandee entered the country as a legal permanent resident when he was a minor. Visas and green cards can be revoked when a holder breaks the law.