A Purple Heart recipient who was shot twice while serving in the Army has self-deported to South Korea after Immigration and Customs Enforcement threatened him with arrest.
Sae Joon Park, 55, moved to the United States at the age of seven and joined the Army at 19, deploying to Panama to help topple Manuel Noriega’s regime in 1989. He told Hawaii News Now he narrowly avoided becoming paralyzed after an enemy bullet struck a dog tag near his spine.
Now, President Donald Trump’s migrant crackdown has forced him to abandon his two children and move back to his country of birth, where he has not lived in over four decades.
Park said he self-deported because immigration officials told him this month that his deferred action, which granted him legal status, had abruptly ended. He said officials ordered him to put on an ankle monitor and gave him three weeks to leave the country. If he did not comply, he was threatened with arrest, ICE detention, and a much less pleasant deportation flight to South Korea.
The veteran said he and his family were shocked. He had been peacefully living in Hawaii, having turned his life around after struggling with drug abuse upon his return from combat. He told Hawaii News Now he was suffering from severe, untreated post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, at the time.
Park explained that he turned to marijuana to cope with nightmares and sensitivity to loud noises. However, after moving to Hawaii in 1995, he became addicted to crack cocaine and struggled to get clean. He was convicted of drug and bail offenses in 2009, spending two and a half years in prison.
The conviction caused him to lose his green card, and ICE moved to deport him to South Korea upon his release. However, his lawyers pleaded for an immigration judge to give him a chance at redemption, citing his military service, Purple Heart, and honorable discharge. A judge ultimately granted him protection from deportation, but required him to stay sober and check in with immigration officials annually.
Park said he complied with the required checks, but everything changed at his latest meeting with immigration officials this month. That is when he was ordered to leave the country or risk being arrested and held in an ICE facility indefinitely.
Fearing the worst, Park said he decided to leave behind his children, who are in their 20s, as well as his parents, who are in their 80s. He hugged them and told them goodbye at Honolulu’s airport, unsure when he would see them again.
“These last 14 years have been great, like really proud of myself, proud of my kids, how I’ve been acting and how I’ve been living my life,” he told Hawaii News Now.
The thought of missing significant life events is crushing, he said.
“Let’s say [my daughter] gets married, I won’t be there,” he said. “Let’s say my parents pass away, I won’t be there. You know, so many things that I’ll be missing. And for sure, things are going to happen, I just can’t be there, which is heartbreaking.”
Department of Homeland Security Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed in a statement that Park’s removal is tied to the 16-year-old drug charge that has already been adjudicated. However, she also accused him of “possessing, manufacturing, or selling a dangerous weapon” as well as for “carrying a loaded firearm in a public place.”
“President Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.,” McLaughlin said. “If you come to our country and break our laws, we will find you, arrest you, and deport you. That’s a promise.”
Park acknowledged that he broke the law in his interview with Hawaii News Now. Still, he thinks this sort of punishment, over a decade later, is overkill.
“I get it,” he said. “I broke the law and everything, but I think this is a little severe what they’re doing to me after I paid my dues, after I did my time for the offense that I did. I thought I was doing my part to do whatever I have to do to be a good citizen and do everything right to stay in this country.”
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