On June 10, 2026, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sat on the Minnesota Board of Pardons and voted to pardon a convicted child rapist — an illegal alien who sexually abused a 10-year-old. The victim was 12 by the time the perpetrator was sentenced to 30 years of probation. Not prison. Probation.

Twenty-four days later, AG Ellison dropped an Independence Day video telling Americans how we should be importing more illegal aliens.

The video features Ellison waxing poetic about patriotism. "Every time this country faced a moment of crisis," Ellison said, Americans stepped up "to make that promise of freedom and justice real for more Americans." Freedom and justice. From the man who freed a child rapist from the consequence of deportation.

The Minnesota Board of Pardons consists of three officials: the governor, the state supreme court chief justice, and the attorney general. Governor Tim Walz — yes, that Tim Walz — sat on that same board. The pardon's stated purpose was to shield the convicted predator from removal by the Trump administration, which has made deportation of criminal aliens a priority. So the board didn't pardon this man because he was rehabilitated or because the conviction was unjust. They pardoned the convicted child rapist so he could stay in the country. Yeah, because that's the kind of people we want to keep in this country.

Tami McConkey of the Ramsey County attorney's office flagged the case, noting the severity of the crime against the child victim. Minnesota Republicans condemned the pardon. The backlash was already white-hot on social media by July 3rd, the day before Ellison decided to post his demand Americans import more illegal aliens.

And what a love letter it was. Ellison warned that unnamed forces "want to take back the rights of the people born here" and those "who came here." The video pushed mass naturalization — more citizenship ceremonies, more new Americans, more flag-waving. The framing was clear: if you oppose his vision, you oppose America itself.

That framing might land differently if the guy delivering it hadn't just used his official power to protect a convicted child predator from deportation. The pardon wasn't an act of mercy toward a reformed citizen. It was a political act designed to obstruct federal immigration enforcement, and the vehicle for that act happened to be a man who raped a child.

Ellison could have picked any case to make a stand on immigration. Any sympathetic defendant, any minor offense, any bureaucratic injustice. He picked a child rapist. The Board of Pardons picked a child rapist. And then, less than a month later, the attorney general picked up a camera and told you how much he believes in freedom and justice.

The victim was 10. The sentence was probation. The pardon was political. And the Fourth of July video was right on schedule.