Sae Joon Park, who moved to the U.S. at the age of 7, is a decorated Army veteran who sustained injuries in combat and was honored with the Purple Heart.
However, after nearly 50 years in the U.S., Park chose to return to South Korea voluntarily when he faced the threat of imprisonment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to a drug-related conviction.
“It’s incredibly surreal. I couldn’t accept it until the very end, but the harsh truth has set in, and it is indeed happening,” Park shared with KITV, a TV station in Hawaii. “It’s hard to comprehend that this is my reality now.”
Loved ones, including his mother and two aunties, said their goodbyes to him Monday at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu.
Park’s mother brought him to the U.S. when he was 7.
“She’s like, early stage of, like, dementia right now,” Park told KITV. “She’s coming through, so she’s on and off. She kind of doesn’t know really what’s going on.”
Park also has an adult daughter and son. He told KITV he’s thought about the possibility of never getting to see his mother and children again.
“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,” he said.
Park said he had a problem earlier in life with drugs and became an addict. He was convicted of a drug offense.
“And I think generally in society that is what people would consider very serious crimes for immigrants to commit,” Park’s attorney Danicole Ramos said. “But also in immigration law, one of the things that they also consider, apparently an aggravated felony is jumping bail.”
The Purple Heart recipient considers himself lucky to have had the ability to self-deport.
“They were ready to lock me up,” he said. “And that is so unfair, and so many people are getting locked up.”
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