Army vet and Purple Heart recipient self-deports after 48 years in US
(KTLA) – A 55-year-old veteran of the U.S. Army who was wounded in action, awarded the Purple Heart and honorably discharged self-deported this week after being ordered to by federal immigration officials, according to multiple media reports.
Sae Joon Park, a green-card holder and father of two grown children, came to the United States from South Korea when he was 7 years old. After joining his mother in Miami, the two of them moved to Los Angeles where he spent the rest of his childhood, NPR reported.
After graduating high school, Park joined the Army. He was deployed to Panama in 1989, where the U.S. was involved in Operation Just Cause, an effort to topple Manuel Noriega's regime.
One afternoon, Park's platoon came under attack. While returning fire, he was struck in the back by gunfire from Panamanian soldiers.
It wasn't until after his discharge, he told NPR, that he began experiencing problems with post-traumatic stress disorder, though at the time, he was unaware the mental health condition was what was causing painful symptoms that he self-medicated with drugs.
Law enforcement caught up with him one night in New York when he was attempting to buy crack cocaine. Months later, he skipped a scheduled court hearing.
'I just couldn't stay clean,' the veteran told NPR. 'So, finally when the judge told me, 'Don't come back into my court with dirty urine,' which I knew I would, I got scared and jumped bail.'
Charges of possession and bail jumping meant that Park would be unable to become a naturalized citizen or seek relief from a deportation order.
After serving three years in prison, a time where he told NPR he'd lost all desire to do drugs, he moved to Hawaii where his family was living. The 55-year-old spent 10 years working at a car dealership while raising his son and daughter.
U.S. immigration officials issued Park a removal order after his release from prison, but allowed him to stay in the country as long as he attended regular check-ins with federal agents, a once-typical allowance given to immigrants not considered a deportation priority.
That, however, changed earlier this month when he was told by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that he would be detained and deported if he did not leave on his own.
The 55-year-old spent his last remaining days enjoying time with his children and his 85-year-old mother, telling NPR that he's working to accept that it is probably the last time he'll see her.
While he doesn't regret joining the Army and getting wounded, telling the outlet that it's a part of his journey, he said, 'I can't believe this is happening in America. That blows my mind, like a country that I fought for.'
On June 23, the 55-year-old boarded a flight to a place he barely remembered and left behind the country he called home.
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6 hours ago
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Purple heart army veteran self-deports after 50 years from ‘country I fought for'
A US army veteran who lived in the country for nearly 50 years – and earned a prestigious military citation for being wounded in combat – has left for South Korea after he says past struggles with drug addiction left him targeted by the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. 'I can't believe this is happening in America,' Sae Joon Park, who held legal permanent residency, told National Public Radio in an interview before his departure Monday from Hawaii. 'That blows me away – like [it is] a country that I fought for.' Park's remarks to NPR and the Hawaii news station KITV vividly illustrate the effects that Donald Trump's immigration policies can have on those who came to the US from abroad and obtained so-called green cards. His experience also highlights the challenges that noncitizens can face if they are ensnared by legal problems after serving the US military. As the 55-year-old Park put it, he was brought to the US from South Korea at age seven and enlisted in the army after high school. He later participated in the US's invasion of Panama in 1989 that toppled the regime of General Manuel Noriega – who was wanted by American authorities on accusations of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering. During what was codenamed Operation Just Cause, Park was shot in the back during an exchange of gunfire with Panamanian troops. He flew back to the US, accepted the Purple Heart decoration given to US military members who are hurt or wounded in combat, secured an honorable discharge from the army and began physically recovering. But he had difficulty grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder from being shot, and he became addicted to the illicit drug crack cocaine as he tried to cope, he recounted to NPR. Park spent a few years in prison beginning in 2009 after police in New York arrested him while he tried to buy crack from a dealer one night, he said. At one point, Park skipped a court hearing related to his arrest knowing he would fail a required drug test. That doomed his chances of converting his legal residency into full US citizenship, which the government offers to military veterans who arrive to the country from abroad and serve honorably. A judge ordered Park's removal from the US, though he was allowed to remain in the country on the condition that he checked in annually with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents. That arrangement is typically offered to people whose removals are not considered a priority, and Park took advantage of the opportunity to settle in Hawaii while raising a son and daughter. Then earlier in June, as NPR noted, Ice officials under the Trump administration's direction warned him that he would be detained and deported from the US unless he left voluntarily in the coming weeks. He chose to bid farewell to his friends, children and mother, who is aged 85 and battling the early stages of dementia. Park told KITV he realized he may never see any of his loved ones again as he prepared to fly out of Honolulu's Daniel K Inouye international airport. 'She kind of doesn't know really what's going on,' Park said at an airport named after a congressional Medal of Honor recipient who fought for the army in the second world war alongside Japanese American soldiers whose relatives had been incarcerated in US internment camps at the time. 'I won't be there for a funeral, like my daughter getting married – just, there's a lot of things connected with it. I definitely know that.' The Trump administration has been unapologetic about its immigration policies. And on Wednesday, the assistant homeland security department secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, issued a statement saying Park's history 'includes convictions for possession, manufacturing or selling a dangerous weapon, carrying a loaded firearm in a public place, assault and criminal possession of a controlled substance'. McLaughlin's statement didn't elaborate on Park's record – but it also said his prior, adjudicated removal order deprived him of the 'legal basis to remain in the US'. 'If you come to our country and break our laws, we will find you, arrest you and deport you,' McLaughlin's statement said. 'That's a promise.' Park told KITV and NPR that he considered himself fortunate to have been able to be a US soldier and control how he left the country. But he also maintained his treatment at the hands of Ice was 'so unfair'. 'I was in disbelief until the last minute – but reality is hitting real hard,' Park said to the Hawaii outlet. 'And I really can't believe this is happening.'
Yahoo
17 hours ago
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L.A. Army veteran with Purple Heart self-deports to South Korea under threat of deportation
An Army veteran who grew up in Van Nuys and was awarded a Purple Heart self-deported to South Korea this week as he was threatened with being detained and deported by federal immigration forces. On Monday, veteran Sae Joon Park, who legally immigrated from South Korea when he was seven years old, grew up in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley and held a green card, flew back to his homeland under threat of deportation at the age of 55. He said he is being forced to leave because of drug convictions nearly two decades ago that he said were a response to the PTSD he suffered after being shot during military action in Panama. 'It's unbelievable. I'm still in disbelief that this has actually happened,' Park said in a phone interview from Incheon early Wednesday morning. 'I know I made my mistakes … but it's not like I was a violent criminal. It's not like I'm going around robbing people at gunpoint or hurting anyone. It was self-induced because of the problems I had.' Asked to comment on Park, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Park has an "extensive criminal history" and has been given a final removal order, with the option to self-deport. Park said he suffered from PTSD and addiction in the aftermath of being wounded when he was part of the U.S. forces that invaded Panama in 1989 to depose the nation's de facto leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega. But now Park, a legal immigrant, is targeted by federal authorities in President Trump's recent immigration raids that have prompted widespread protests in Los Angeles and across the nation. Federal authorities have arrested more than 1,600 immigrants for deportation in Southern California between June 6 and 22, according to DHS. Read more: More than 1,600 immigrants detained in Southern California this month, DHS says A noncitizen is eligible for naturalization if they served honorably in the U.S. military for at least a year. Park served less than a year before he was wounded and honorably discharged. Since 2002, over 158,000 immigrant service members have become U.S. citizens. As of 2021, the Department of Veteran Affairs and DHS are responsible for tracking deported veterans to make sure they still have access to VA benefits. Park's parents divorced when he was a toddler, and his mother immigrated from South Korea to the United States. He followed her a year later. They first lived in Koreatown, moved to Panorama City and then Van Nuys. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in 1988. Struggling at first to learn English and acclimate with his classmates, he eventually became part of the Southern California skateboarding and surfing scene of the 1980s, which is when television editor Josh Belson met him. They have been close friends ever since. 'He's always got a smile, a very kind of vivacious energy about him,' said Belson, who attended a nearby high school when they met. 'He was the kind of person you wanted to be around.' After graduating, Park said he wasn't ready to attend college, so he joined the military. 'The Army provided not only turning me into a man, but also providing me with the GI Bill, so you can go to college later, and they'll pay for it. And the fact that I did believe in the country, the United States,' he said. 'So I felt like I was doing something honorable. I was very proud when I joined the military.' Park's platoon was deployed to Panama in late 1989, where he said they experienced a firefight the first night there. The following day, he said he was carrying an M-16 when they raided the house of one of the 'witches' Noriega allegedly followed. He said they saw a voodoo worship room with body parts and a cross painted in blood on the floor. While there, he heard gunfire from the backyard and returned fire. He was shot twice, in his spine and lower left back. The bullet to his spine was partially deflected by his dog tag, which Park believes is the reason he wasn't paralyzed. A military ambulance was delayed because of the firefight, but a Vietnam veteran who lived nearby rescued him, Park said. 'I just remember I'm just lying in my own pool of blood and just leaking out badly. So he actually went home, got his pickup truck, put me in the back of his pickup truck with two soldiers, and drove me to the hospital,' Park said. He was then evacuated to an Army hospital in San Antonio. A four-star general awarded him a Purple Heart at his bedside. Then-President George W. Bush visited wounded soldiers there. Read more: More immigrants opt to self-deport rather than risk being marched out like criminals Park spent about two weeks there, and then went home for a month or so, until he could walk. His experience resulted in mental issues he didn't recognize, he said. 'My biggest issue at the time, more than my injuries, was — I didn't know what it was at the time, nobody did, because there was no such thing as PTSD at the time,' he said. Eventually, 'I realized I was suffering from PTSD badly, nightmares every night, severe. I couldn't hear loud noises, and at that time in L.A., you would hear gunshots every night you left the house, so I was paranoid at all times. And being a man and being a tough guy, I couldn't share this with anyone.' Park started self-medicating with marijuana, which he said helped him sleep. But he started doing harder drugs, eventually crack cocaine. He moved to Hawaii after his mother and stepfather's L.A. store burned during the 1992 riots, and married. After Park and his wife separated, he moved to New York City, where his addiction worsened. 'It got really bad. It just got out of control — every day, every night, all day — just smoking, everything,' Park said. One night, in the late 2000s, he was meeting his drug dealer at a Taco Bell in Queens when police surrounded his car, and the dealer fled while leaving a large quantity of crack in his glove compartment, Park said. A judge sent Park to rehab twice, but he said he was not ready to get sober. 'I just couldn't. I was an addict. It was so hard for me to stay clean. I'd be good for 30 days and relapse,' he said. 'I'd be good for 20 days and relapse. It was such a struggle. Finally, the judge told me, 'Mr. Park, the next time you come into my courtroom with the dirty urine, you're gonna go to prison.' So I got scared.' So Park didn't return to court, drove to Los Angeles and then returned to Hawaii, skipping bail, which is an aggravated felony. 'I did not know at the time jumping bail was an aggravated felony charge, and combined with my drug use, that's deportable for someone like me with my green card,' he said. U.S. Marshals were sent looking for Park, and he said once he heard about this, he turned himself in in August 2009, because he didn't want to be arrested in front of his two children. Read more: Abcarian: Wasn't the president supposed to be deporting criminals? He served two years in prison and said immigration officials detained him for six months after he was released as he fought deportation orders. He was eventually released under 'deferred action,' an act of prosecutorial discretion by DHS to put off deportation. Every year since, Park was required to check in with federal officials and show that he was employed and sober. Meanwhile, he had sole custody of his two children, who are now 28 and 25. He was also caring for his 85-year-old mother, who is in the early stages of dementia. During his most recent check-in, Park was about to be handcuffed and detained, but immigration agents placed an ankle monitor on him and gave him three weeks to get his affairs in order and self-deport. He is not allowed to return to the United States for 10 years. He worries he will miss his mother's passing and his daughter's wedding. 'That's the biggest part. But … it could be a lot worse too. I look at it that way also,' Park said. 'So I'm grateful I made it out of the United States, I guess, without getting detained.' 'I always just assumed a green card, legal residency, is just like having citizenship,' he added. 'I just never felt like I had to go get citizenship. And that's just being honest. As a kid growing up in the United States, I've always just thought, hey, I'm a green card holder, a legal resident, I'm just like a citizen.' His condition has spiraled since then. "Alright. I'm losing it. Can't stop crying. I think PTSD kicking in strong," Park texted Belson on Thursday. "Just want to get back to my family and take care of my mother ... I'm a mess." Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
L.A. Army veteran with Purple Heart self-deports to South Korea under threat of deportation
An Army veteran who grew up in Van Nuys and was awarded a Purple Heart self-deported to South Korea this week as he was threatened with being detained and deported by federal immigration forces. On Monday, veteran Sae Joon Park, who legally immigrated from South Korea when he was seven years old, grew up in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley and held a green card, flew back to his homeland under threat of deportation at the age of 55. He said he is being forced to leave because of drug convictions nearly two decades ago that he said were a response to the PTSD he suffered after being shot during military action in Panama. 'It's unbelievable. I'm still in disbelief that this has actually happened,' Park said in a phone interview from Incheon early Wednesday morning. 'I know I made my mistakes … but it's not like I was a violent criminal. It's not like I'm going around robbing people at gunpoint or hurting anyone. It was self-induced because of the problems I had.' Asked to comment on Park, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Park has an 'extensive criminal history' and has been given a final removal order, with the option to self-deport. Park said he suffered from PTSD and addiction in the aftermath of being wounded when he was part of the U.S. forces that invaded Panama in 1989 to depose the nation's de facto leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega. But now Park, a legal immigrant, is targeted by federal authorities in President Trump's recent immigration raids that have prompted widespread protests in Los Angeles and across the nation. Federal authorities have arrested more than 1,600 immigrants for deportation in Southern California between June 6 and 22, according to DHS. A noncitizen is eligible for naturalization if they served honorably in the U.S. military for at least a year. Park served less than a year before he was wounded and honorably discharged. Since 2002, over 158,000 immigrant service members have become U.S. citizens. As of 2021, the Department of Veteran Affairs and DHS are responsible for tracking deported veterans to make sure they still have access to VA benefits. Park's parents divorced when he was a toddler, and his mother immigrated from South Korea to the United States. He followed her a year later. They first lived in Koreatown, moved to Panorama City and then Van Nuys. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in 1988. Struggling at first to learn English and acclimate with his classmates, he eventually became part of the Southern California skateboarding and surfing scene of the 1980s, which is when television editor Josh Belson met him. They have been close friends ever since. 'He's always got a smile, a very kind of vivacious energy about him,' said Belson, who attended a nearby high school when they met. 'He was the kind of person you wanted to be around.' After graduating, Park said he wasn't ready to attend college, so he joined the military. 'The Army provided not only turning me into a man, but also providing me with the GI Bill, so you can go to college later, and they'll pay for it. And the fact that I did believe in the country, the United States,' he said. 'So I felt like I was doing something honorable. I was very proud when I joined the military.' Park's platoon was deployed to Panama in late 1989, where he said they experienced a firefight the first night there. The following day, he said he was carrying an M-16 when they raided the house of one of the 'witches' Noriega allegedly followed. He said they saw a voodoo worship room with body parts and a cross painted in blood on the floor. While there, he heard gunfire from the backyard and returned fire. He was shot twice, in his spine and lower left back. The bullet to his spine was partially deflected by his dog tag, which Park believes is the reason he wasn't paralyzed. A military ambulance was delayed because of the firefight, but a Vietnam veteran who lived nearby rescued him, Park said. 'I just remember I'm just lying in my own pool of blood and just leaking out badly. So he actually went home, got his pickup truck, put me in the back of his pickup truck with two soldiers, and drove me to the hospital,' Park said. He was then evacuated to an Army hospital in San Antonio. A four-star general awarded him a Purple Heart at his bedside. Then-President George W. Bush visited wounded soldiers there. Park spent about two weeks there, and then went home for a month or so, until he could walk. His experience resulted in mental issues he didn't recognize, he said. 'My biggest issue at the time, more than my injuries, was — I didn't know what it was at the time, nobody did, because there was no such thing as PTSD at the time,' he said. Eventually, 'I realized I was suffering from PTSD badly, nightmares every night, severe. I couldn't hear loud noises, and at that time in L.A., you would hear gunshots every night you left the house, so I was paranoid at all times. And being a man and being a tough guy, I couldn't share this with anyone.' Park started self-medicating with marijuana, which he said helped him sleep. But he started doing harder drugs, eventually crack cocaine. He moved to Hawaii after his mother and stepfather's L.A. store burned during the 1992 riots, and married. After Park and his wife separated, he moved to New York City, where his addiction worsened. 'It got really bad. It just got out of control — every day, every night, all day — just smoking, everything,' Park said. One night, in the late 2000s, he was meeting his drug dealer at a Taco Bell in Queens when police surrounded his car, and the dealer fled while leaving a large quantity of crack in his glove compartment, Park said. A judge sent Park to rehab twice, but he said he was not ready to get sober. 'I just couldn't. I was an addict. It was so hard for me to stay clean. I'd be good for 30 days and relapse,' he said. 'I'd be good for 20 days and relapse. It was such a struggle. Finally, the judge told me, 'Mr. Park, the next time you come into my courtroom with the dirty urine, you're gonna go to prison.' So I got scared.' So Park didn't return to court, drove to Los Angeles and then returned to Hawaii, skipping bail, which is an aggravated felony. 'I did not know at the time jumping bail was an aggravated felony charge, and combined with my drug use, that's deportable for someone like me with my green card,' he said. U.S. Marshals were sent looking for Park, and he said once he heard about this, he turned himself in in August 2009, because he didn't want to be arrested in front of his two children. He served two years in prison and said immigration officials detained him for six months after he was released as he fought deportation orders. He was eventually released under 'deferred action,' an act of prosecutorial discretion by DHS to put off deportation. Every year since, Park was required to check in with federal officials and show that he was employed and sober. Meanwhile, he had sole custody of his two children, who are now 28 and 25. He was also caring for his 85-year-old mother, who is in the early stages of dementia. During his most recent check-in, Park was about to be handcuffed and detained, but immigration agents placed an ankle monitor on him and gave him three weeks to get his affairs in order and self-deport. He is not allowed to return to the United States for 10 years. He worries he will miss his mother's passing and his daughter's wedding. 'That's the biggest part. But … it could be a lot worse too. I look at it that way also,' Park said. 'So I'm grateful I made it out of the United States, I guess, without getting detained.' 'I always just assumed a green card, legal residency, is just like having citizenship,' he added. 'I just never felt like I had to go get citizenship. And that's just being honest. As a kid growing up in the United States, I've always just thought, hey, I'm a green card holder, a legal resident, I'm just like a citizen.' His condition has spiraled since then. 'Alright. I'm losing it. Can't stop crying. I think PTSD kicking in strong,' Park texted Belson on Thursday. 'Just want to get back to my family and take care of my mother ... I'm a mess.' Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
