Former Hawaii army soldier self-deports

By Jai Cunningham

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    HONOLULU (KITV) — As immigrant deportations across the U.S. continue some feel that non-dangerous immigrants are getting caught in the crossfire.

“Thank you for your service! I’m sorry!”

Sae Joon Park was one of those immigrants. He took farewell pictures with his loved ones at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Monday, June 23.

It was like a dream send off, but this is not a fairy tale.

“It’s so real. I was in disbelief until the last minute, but reality is hitting real hard, and it is definitely real,” said Sae Joon Park, who’s being deported to South Korea. “And I can’t believe this is really happening.”

And while there were well-wishers with signs there were also three women, who sat quietly on their own, his two aunties as well as his mother.

It was nearly 50 years ago that Park’s mom brought him here to the United States when he was just a 7 year-old boy.

“She’s like, early stage of, like, dementia right now,” Park said. “She’s coming through, so she’s on and off. She kind of doesn’t know really what’s going on.”

And he knows he will likely never see his mother again, or perhaps his adult son and daughter.

“Oh, definitely, I thought of that,” he said. “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.”

Told to leave the country he has called home for nearly 50 years because: “I was a drug addict. I was self induced. I had a problem with drugs.”

Immigrants who commit murder, sexual assault and drug dealing are all considered aggravated felonies in the eye of the law.

“And I think generally in society that is what people would consider very serious crimes for immigrants to commit,” said his attorney Danicole Ramos. “But also in immigration law, one of the things that they also consider, apparently an aggravated felony is jumping bail.”

Park was convicted of a drug offense.

The combat injured U.S. Army veteran received the purple heart and is now self-deporting back to South Korea, somewhere he hasn’t visited in decades, likely to never see loved ones again.

“I was just very lucky to deport myself, remove myself, because they were ready to lock me up,” Park said. “And that is so unfair, and so many people are are getting locked up.”

Island News reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment and are waiting to hear back.

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