Minnesota Benefits for Veterans of the Secret War in Laos

Section 197.448 is the most distinctive provision in Minnesota veterans law and it has moved twice in two years. A "veteran of the Secret War in Laos", also called an SGU veteran, is a person who resides in Minnesota and who either was naturalized under section 2(1) of the federal Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000, Public Law 106-207, or is a person whom the commissioner of veterans affairs determines served honorably with a special guerrilla unit or with irregular forces that operated from a base in Laos in support of the armed forces of the United States at any time between February 28, 1961 and May 14, 1975, and is a United States citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence. The two clauses have never been equally usable. A person inside clause (1), naturalized under the federal act, has been entitled to the listed benefits since July 2, 2025. A person inside clause (2) is entitled after the commissioner verifies their status, and when the section was enacted by Laws 2025, chapter 30 that verification was frozen: the commissioner was forbidden to begin accepting applications until the legislature enacted criteria and a protocol for deciding who served and who was deserving of Minnesota veterans benefits. The same act created an advisory task force, gave it until February 15, 2026 to report, and expired it on that date. Laws 2026, chapter 96 struck the freeze and replaced it with a process. New subdivision 3 requires the commissioner to establish an application process. To establish eligibility an applicant submits a completed application for preneed determination of eligibility for burial in a VA national cemetery. County veterans service officers and the commissioner must assist applicants in filling it out, and the commissioner must make the application and any successor form available on the department's website and at its offices. Once VA makes a determination, the applicant submits it to the commissioner, and where VA determines the applicant is eligible, the commissioner must issue a certificate of eligibility. That design outsources the hardest question to the federal agency that already answers it. It also means the state benefit now rises and falls with VA's handling of preneed burial eligibility for Laotian irregular forces. New subdivision 4 is the route for everyone VA turns down. An applicant may request special consideration from the commissioner, submitting the VA documentation of ineligibility and at least two different forms of documentation supporting the claim of veteran status. The listed forms are original service-related documents; an affidavit from a commissioned officer, non-commissioned officer or other member of the applicant's chain of command with direct knowledge of the service; two affidavits from individuals who served with the applicant in a special guerrilla unit or irregular force and have personal knowledge of the service; or other appropriate and relevant proof as the commissioner determines, expressly including photographs taken during the applicant's service in Laos, newspaper articles featuring or citing the service, certificates of membership from a veteran's organisation such as the Lao-Hmong American Coalition, Lao Veterans of America, SGU Veterans and Families of USA, Inc., and Royal Lao Armed Forces and SGU, congressional recognition certificates, certificates of training, and letters of commendation. A statute that names photographs and community-organisation membership cards as proof of military service is written for a population whose service records were never kept, or were destroyed, and it is the only provision of its kind in this catalog. The benefits list also changed in 2026. It now reads: section 43A.09 (civil service recruitment); section 43A.11 (veterans preference in state employment); section 43A.111 (certain disabled veterans); section 197.23 (purchase of grave markers); section 197.231 (honor guards); section 197.236 (state veterans cemeteries); section 197.455 (veterans preference); section 197.4551 (permissive preference for veterans in private employment); section 197.46 (writ of mandamus); section 197.48 (application); section 197.481 (enforcement by commissioner); and section 197.63 (vital records, certified copies). The 2026 act added the three chapter 43A provisions and the three Veterans Preference Act enforcement sections, which is a substantial upgrade: an SGU veteran now has the job protection in section 197.46 and the commissioner's enforcement machinery in section 197.481, not merely a hiring preference. It removed three entries. Section 171.07, subdivision 15, the driver's licence designation, came off the list because the same act wrote SGU veterans directly into that subdivision with an "SGU Veteran" designation effective January 1, 2027. Section 197.65, on renewal of professional licences, motor vehicle registration and drivers' licences during service, and section 197.987, the honor and remember flag, came off the list and were not relocated anywhere the act names. An SGU veteran relying on either should treat the position as unsettled. This is a list, not a general grant. Section 197.448 does not make an SGU veteran a "veteran" for purposes of section 197.447, so nothing outside the enumerated sections follows automatically. The market value exclusion in section 273.13, subdivision 34, the Minnesota GI Bill in section 197.791, the veterans homes in chapter 198 and the State Soldiers Assistance Program are all outside the list.