An Military veteran who grew up in Van Nuys and was awarded a Purple Coronary 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 previous, grew up in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley and held a inexperienced card, flew again to his homeland below menace of deportation on the age of 55. He stated he’s being pressured to depart due to drug convictions almost 20 years in the past that he stated have been a response to the PTSD he suffered after being shot throughout navy motion in Panama.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m still in disbelief that this has actually happened,” Park stated in a cellphone 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.”
Sae Joon Park, an Military veteran with a Purple Coronary heart.
(From Sae Joon Park)
Requested to touch upon Park, Division of Homeland Safety Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated Park has an “extensive criminal history” and has been given a remaining removing order, with the choice to self-deport.
Park stated he suffered from PTSD and dependancy within the aftermath of being wounded when he was a part of the U.S. forces that invaded Panama in 1989 to depose the nation’s de facto chief, Gen. Manuel Noriega.
However now Park, a authorized immigrant, is focused by federal authorities in President Trump’s current immigration raids which have prompted widespread protests in Los Angeles and throughout the nation. Federal authorities have arrested greater than 1,600 immigrants for deportation in Southern California between June 6 and 22, in keeping with DHS.
A noncitizen is eligible for naturalization in the event that they served honorably within the U.S. navy for a minimum of a yr. Park served lower than a yr earlier than he was wounded and honorably discharged.
Since 2002, over 158,000 immigrant service members have turn into U.S. residents.
As of 2021, the Division of Veteran Affairs and DHS are accountable for monitoring deported veterans to verify they nonetheless have entry to VA advantages.
Park’s dad and mom divorced when he was a toddler, and his mom immigrated from South Korea to the USA. He adopted her a yr later. They first lived in Koreatown, moved to Panorama Metropolis after which Van Nuys. He graduated from Notre Dame Excessive Faculty in Sherman Oaks in 1988.
Struggling at first to be taught English and acclimate along with his classmates, he ultimately grew to become a part of the Southern California skateboarding and browsing scene of the Eighties, which is when tv editor Josh Belson met him. They’ve been shut associates ever since.
“He’s always got a smile, a very kind of vivacious energy about him,” stated Belson, who attended a close-by highschool after they met. “He was the kind of person you wanted to be around.”
After graduating, Park stated he wasn’t able to attend school, so he joined the navy.
“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 stated. “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, the place he stated they skilled a firefight the primary evening there. The next day, he stated he was carrying an M-16 after they raided the home of one of many “witches” Noriega allegedly adopted. He stated they noticed a voodoo worship room with physique components and a cross painted in blood on the ground.
Whereas there, he heard gunfire from the yard and returned fireplace. He was shot twice, in his backbone and decrease left again. The bullet to his backbone was partially deflected by his canine tag, which Park believes is the rationale he wasn’t paralyzed. A navy ambulance was delayed due to the firefight, however a Vietnam veteran who lived close by rescued him, Park stated.
“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 stated.
He was then evacuated to an Military hospital in San Antonio. A four-star common awarded him a Purple Coronary heart at his bedside. Then-President George W. Bush visited wounded troopers there.
Park spent about two weeks there, after which went dwelling for a month or so, till he may stroll. His expertise resulted in psychological points he didn’t acknowledge, he stated.
“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 stated. Finally, “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 began self-medicating with marijuana, which he stated helped him sleep. However he began doing more durable medicine, ultimately crack cocaine. He moved to Hawaii after his mom and stepfather’s L.A. retailer burned through the 1992 riots, and married. After Park and his spouse separated, he moved to New York Metropolis, the place his dependancy worsened.
“It got really bad. It just got out of control — every day, every night, all day — just smoking, everything,” Park stated.
One evening, within the late 2000s, he was assembly his drug seller at a Taco Bell in Queens when police surrounded his automobile, and the seller fled whereas leaving a big amount of crack in his glove compartment, Park stated.
A decide despatched Park to rehab twice, however he stated he was not able 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 stated. “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 docket, drove to Los Angeles after which 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 stated.
U.S. Marshals have been despatched on the lookout for Park, and he stated as soon as he heard about this, he turned himself in in August 2009, as a result of he didn’t need to be arrested in entrance of his two kids.
He served two years in jail and stated immigration officers detained him for six months after he was launched as he fought deportation orders. He was ultimately launched below “deferred action,” an act of prosecutorial discretion by DHS to place off deportation.
Yearly since, Park was required to verify in with federal officers and present that he was employed and sober. In the meantime, he had sole custody of his two kids, who at the moment are 28 and 25. He was additionally caring for his 85-year-old mom, who’s within the early phases of dementia.
Throughout his most up-to-date check-in, Park was about to be handcuffed and detained, however immigration brokers positioned an ankle monitor on him and gave him three weeks to get his affairs so as and self-deport. He’s not allowed to return to the USA for 10 years. He worries he’ll miss his mom’s passing and his daughter’s wedding ceremony.
“That’s the biggest part. But … it could be a lot worse too. I look at it that way also,” Park stated. “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 situation 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.”
Occasions workers author Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
