This week, an Army veteran who was born and raised in Van Nuys and received a Purple Heart self-deported to South Korea after federal immigration officials threatened to detain and deport him.
Veteran Sae Joon Park, 55, flew back to his native country on Monday under threat of deportation. He was born in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley, legally moved from South Korea when he was seven years old, and had a green card. He said that his drug convictions from almost 20 years ago were a reaction to the PTSD he experienced following his shooting during a military operation in Panama, which is why he is being forced to leave.
It’s unreal. In an early Wednesday morning phone conversation from Incheon, Park stated, “I’m still in disbelief that this has actually happened.” Although I acknowledge my shortcomings, I wasn’t a violent criminal. I’m not going around hurting people or robbing them at gunpoint. I caused it for myself because of my issues.
When asked about Park, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security stated that Park has a lengthy criminal record and has been issued a final removal order with the option to self-deport.
Park claimed that after being injured during the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama to overthrow Gen. Manuel Noriega, the country’s de facto leader, he battled addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder.
However, Park, a lawful immigrant, is now the target of federal agents in recent immigration raids by President Trump, which have sparked massive demonstrations in Los Angeles and across the country. According to DHS, between June 6 and June 22, federal agents detained almost 1,600 individuals in Southern California for deportation.
Politics
Most of those detained were not convicted of any crimes, according to data from the early days of the immigration operation. Nearly half of the guys were Mexican and of working age.
Honorable service in the U.S. military for a minimum of one year qualifies a noncitizen for citizenship. Park was wounded and honorably discharged after less than a year of service.
More than 158,000 foreign service members have obtained U.S. citizenship since 2002.
As of 2021, tracking deported veterans to ensure they are still eligible for VA benefits falls within the purview of DHS and the Department of Veteran Affairs.
When Park was a toddler, his parents had divorced, and his mother moved to the US from South Korea. A year later, he followed her. After relocating to Panorama City from Koreatown, they eventually settled in Van Nuys. In 1988, he received his diploma from Sherman Oaks’ Notre Dame High School.
He originally struggled to learn English and fit in with his peers, but he finally joined the Southern California surf and skateboarding culture in the 1980s, which is how television editor Josh Belson first came to know him. Since then, they have remained close friends.
Belson, who went to a local high school when they first met, said, “He always has a smile on his face and a very kind of vivacious energy about him.” You longed to be around someone like him.
Park claimed that he entered the military after graduation because he wasn’t prepared to go to college.
In addition to helping me grow as a man, the Army also gave me the GI Bill, which allows you to attend college later and has the money to cover the cost. Additionally, he stated that he did believe in the United States. I therefore thought I was acting honorably. I joined the military with great pride.
In late 1989, Park’s battalion was sent to Panama, where he claimed they were involved in a gunfight on their first night. He claimed that when they stormed the home of one of the witnesses Noriega reportedly followed the next day, he was in possession of an M-16. He claimed to have seen a voodoo worship space with a blood-stained cross on the floor and body parts.
He heard gunfire coming from the backyard while he was there and fired back. He was shot twice, once in the lower left back and once in the spine. Park claims that he was not paralyzed because his dog tag partially deflected the bullet that was intended to strike his spine. A Vietnam veteran who lived nearby saved him after a military ambulance was delayed due to the firefight, Park claimed.
I simply recall that I’m lying in my own blood pool, oozing profusely. According to Park, he went home, got his pickup vehicle, loaded me onto it along with two troops, and transported me to the hospital.
After that, he was flown to a San Antonio Army hospital. At his bedside, a four-star general presented him with a Purple Heart. There, then-President George W. Bush paid a visit to injured soldiers.
California
Undocumented immigrants who have worked in California for decades are planning to leave, even in liberal states, preferring to leave on their own terms rather than risk being evicted with nothing.
After spending roughly two weeks there, Park returned home for a month or so until he was able to walk. He said that his event caused mental health problems that he was unaware of.
According to him, my biggest problem at the time was that no one knew what PTSD was, so I didn’t know what it was either. At the time, there was no such thing as PTSD. After a while, I became aware that I had severe PTSD, including night terrors. I was constantly frightened because I couldn’t hear loud noises and, in Los Angeles at the time, you could hear gunshots every night you left the house. And because I’m a tough guy and a man, I couldn’t tell anyone about this.
Park began using marijuana for self-medication because he claimed it helped him fall asleep. However, he began using more potent drugs, finally crack cocaine. After his mother and stepfather’s store in Los Angeles burned down during the 1992 riots, he married and relocated to Hawaii. Park’s addiction grew worse once he relocated to New York City following his divorce from his wife.
It became quite nasty. “Every day, every night, all day just smoking, everything just got out of control,” Park said.
According to Park, he was meeting his narcotics dealer at a Taco Bell in Queens one evening in the late 2000s when cops surrounded his vehicle. The dealer escaped, leaving a significant amount of crack in his glove box.
Park was repeatedly sent to treatment by a judge, but he claimed he wasn’t prepared to stop drinking.
I simply couldn’t. I had an addiction. I had a terrible time keeping clean. He said, “I’d be good for 30 days and then relapse.” After 20 days, I would relapse. It was really difficult. 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. I became afraid as a result.
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.
Trump is taking revenge on deep-blue California by terrorizing our immigrant communities.
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.