Ice arrests of US military veterans and their relatives are on the rise: ‘a country that I fought for’
José Olivares
Sat, June 28, 2025
THE GUARDIAN
This undated photo provided by Alejandro Barranco shows, from left to right, Emanuel Barranco; Alejandro Barranco, a US marine veteran; Narciso Barranco, his father, who was beaten by immigration agents and arrested at a landscaping job; and Jose Luis Barranco.
This undated photo provided by Alejandro Barranco shows, from left to right, Emanuel Barranco; Alejandro Barranco, a US marine veteran; Narciso Barranco, his father, who was beaten by immigration agents and arrested at a landscaping job; and Jose Luis Barranco.
Photograph: AP
The son of an American citizen and military veteran – but who has no citizenship to any country – was deported from the US to Jamaica in late May.
Jermaine Thomas’s deportation, recently reported on by the Austin Chronicle, is one of a growing number of immigration cases involving military service members’ relatives or even veterans themselves who have been ensnared in the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.
As the Chronicle reported, Thomas was born on a US army base in Germany to an American citizen father, who was originally born in Jamaica and is now dead. Thomas does not have US, German or Jamaican citizenship – but Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency deported him anyway to Jamaica, a country in which he had never stepped foot.
Thomas had spent two-and-a-half months incarcerated while waiting for an update on his case. He was previously at the center of a case brought before the US supreme court regarding his unique legal status.
The federal government argued that Thomas – who had previously received a deportation order – was not a citizen simply because he was born on a US army base, and it used prior criminal convictions to buttress the case against him. He petitioned for a review of the order, but the supreme court denied him, finding his father “did not meet the physical presence requirement of the [law] in force at the time of Thomas’s birth”.
From Jamaica, Thomas told the Chronicle: “If you’re in the US army, and the army deploys you somewhere, and you’ve gotta have your child over there – and your child makes a mistake after you pass away – and you put your life on the line for this country, are you going to be OK with them just kicking your child out of the country?”
He added, in reference to his father: “It was just Memorial Day [in late May]. Y’all are disrespecting his service and his legacy.”
In recent months, US military veterans’ family members have been increasingly detained by immigration officials, as the administration continues pressing for mass deportations.
A US marine veteran, during an interview on CNN, said he felt “betrayed” after immigration officials beat and arrested his father at a landscaping job. The arrested man had moved to the US from Mexico in the 1990s without documentation but was detained by Ice agents this month while doing landscaping work at a restaurant in Santa Ana, California.
In another recent case, the wife of another Marine Corps veteran was detained by Ice despite still breastfeeding her three-month-old daughter. According to the Associated Press, the veteran’s wife had been going through a process to obtain legal residency.
The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to detain and deport people nationwide. During a May meeting, White House officials pressed Ice to increase its daily arrests to at least 3,000 people daily. That would result in 1 million people being arrested annually by Ice.
Following the tense meeting, Ice officials have increased their enforcement operations, including by detaining an increasing number of people with no criminal record. Being undocumented is a civil infraction – not a crime.
According to a recent Guardian analysis, as of mid-June, Ice data shows there were more than 11,700 people in immigration detention arrested by the agency despite no record of them being charged with or convicted of a crime. That represents a staggering 1,271% increase from data released on those in Ice detention immediately preceding the start of Trump’s second term.
In March, Ice officials arrested the daughter of a US veteran who had been fighting a legal battle regarding her status. Alma Bowman, 58, was taken into custody by Ice during a check-in at the Atlanta field office, despite her having lived in the US since she was 10 years old.
Bowman was born in the Philippines during the Vietnam war, to a US navy service member from Illinois stationed there. She had lived in Georgia for almost 50 years. Her permanent residency was revoked following a minor criminal conviction from 20 years ago, leading her to continue a legal battle to obtain citizenship in the US.
Previously, Bowman was detained by Ice at a troubled facility in Georgia, where non-consensual gynecological procedures were allegedly performed on detained women. In 2020, she had been a key witness for attorneys and journalists regarding the controversy. According to an interview with The Intercept from that year, Bowman said she had always thought she was a US citizen.
In another recent case, a US army veteran and green-card holder left on his own to South Korea. His deportation order was due to charges related to drug possession and an issue with drug addiction after being wounded in combat in the 1980s, for which he earned the prestigious Purple Heart citation.
The son of an American citizen and military veteran – but who has no citizenship to any country – was deported from the US to Jamaica in late May.
Jermaine Thomas’s deportation, recently reported on by the Austin Chronicle, is one of a growing number of immigration cases involving military service members’ relatives or even veterans themselves who have been ensnared in the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.
As the Chronicle reported, Thomas was born on a US army base in Germany to an American citizen father, who was originally born in Jamaica and is now dead. Thomas does not have US, German or Jamaican citizenship – but Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency deported him anyway to Jamaica, a country in which he had never stepped foot.
Thomas had spent two-and-a-half months incarcerated while waiting for an update on his case. He was previously at the center of a case brought before the US supreme court regarding his unique legal status.
The federal government argued that Thomas – who had previously received a deportation order – was not a citizen simply because he was born on a US army base, and it used prior criminal convictions to buttress the case against him. He petitioned for a review of the order, but the supreme court denied him, finding his father “did not meet the physical presence requirement of the [law] in force at the time of Thomas’s birth”.
From Jamaica, Thomas told the Chronicle: “If you’re in the US army, and the army deploys you somewhere, and you’ve gotta have your child over there – and your child makes a mistake after you pass away – and you put your life on the line for this country, are you going to be OK with them just kicking your child out of the country?”
He added, in reference to his father: “It was just Memorial Day [in late May]. Y’all are disrespecting his service and his legacy.”
In recent months, US military veterans’ family members have been increasingly detained by immigration officials, as the administration continues pressing for mass deportations.
A US marine veteran, during an interview on CNN, said he felt “betrayed” after immigration officials beat and arrested his father at a landscaping job. The arrested man had moved to the US from Mexico in the 1990s without documentation but was detained by Ice agents this month while doing landscaping work at a restaurant in Santa Ana, California.
In another recent case, the wife of another Marine Corps veteran was detained by Ice despite still breastfeeding her three-month-old daughter. According to the Associated Press, the veteran’s wife had been going through a process to obtain legal residency.
The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to detain and deport people nationwide. During a May meeting, White House officials pressed Ice to increase its daily arrests to at least 3,000 people daily. That would result in 1 million people being arrested annually by Ice.
Following the tense meeting, Ice officials have increased their enforcement operations, including by detaining an increasing number of people with no criminal record. Being undocumented is a civil infraction – not a crime.
According to a recent Guardian analysis, as of mid-June, Ice data shows there were more than 11,700 people in immigration detention arrested by the agency despite no record of them being charged with or convicted of a crime. That represents a staggering 1,271% increase from data released on those in Ice detention immediately preceding the start of Trump’s second term.
In March, Ice officials arrested the daughter of a US veteran who had been fighting a legal battle regarding her status. Alma Bowman, 58, was taken into custody by Ice during a check-in at the Atlanta field office, despite her having lived in the US since she was 10 years old.
Bowman was born in the Philippines during the Vietnam war, to a US navy service member from Illinois stationed there. She had lived in Georgia for almost 50 years. Her permanent residency was revoked following a minor criminal conviction from 20 years ago, leading her to continue a legal battle to obtain citizenship in the US.
Previously, Bowman was detained by Ice at a troubled facility in Georgia, where non-consensual gynecological procedures were allegedly performed on detained women. In 2020, she had been a key witness for attorneys and journalists regarding the controversy. According to an interview with The Intercept from that year, Bowman said she had always thought she was a US citizen.
In another recent case, a US army veteran and green-card holder left on his own to South Korea. His deportation order was due to charges related to drug possession and an issue with drug addiction after being wounded in combat in the 1980s, for which he earned the prestigious Purple Heart citation.
Karissa Waddick,
USA TODAY
Fri, June 27, 2025
An Army Veteran and Purple Heart recipient who has lived in the U.S. for more than four decades self-deported to South Korea after immigration officials said he would otherwise be forcefully removed from the country.
Sae Joon Park's removal order was related to drug possession and bail jumping charges he received more than 15 years ago when he was suffering from PTSD, his attorney Danicole Ramos, told USA TODAY.
Park, a 55-year-old green-card holder, boarded a plane from Hawaii to South Korea on Monday, June 23, and will wait in the country while his legal team works to reopen his case.
Park’s departure is the latest in a series of high-profile deportations of military veterans that have come as the Trump administration escalates immigration enforcement across the country.
“I can't believe that this is happening in America," Park told NPR before he left. “That blows me away, like a country that I fought for."
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Park’s removal was based on his “extensive” criminal background.
“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.”
Since his return to office, Trump has urged ICE officers to deliver “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” invoked wartime powers to stymie immigration, and packed detention centers to the brim with immigrants, more than 40% of whom do not have a criminal record. ICE officials have snatched thousands of people off work sites and streets and, in some cases, agents have deported undocumented immigrants during routine court check-ins.
In May, border czar Tom Homan estimated the administration had deported roughly 200,000 people since January.
Fri, June 27, 2025
An Army Veteran and Purple Heart recipient who has lived in the U.S. for more than four decades self-deported to South Korea after immigration officials said he would otherwise be forcefully removed from the country.
Sae Joon Park's removal order was related to drug possession and bail jumping charges he received more than 15 years ago when he was suffering from PTSD, his attorney Danicole Ramos, told USA TODAY.
Park, a 55-year-old green-card holder, boarded a plane from Hawaii to South Korea on Monday, June 23, and will wait in the country while his legal team works to reopen his case.
Park’s departure is the latest in a series of high-profile deportations of military veterans that have come as the Trump administration escalates immigration enforcement across the country.
“I can't believe that this is happening in America," Park told NPR before he left. “That blows me away, like a country that I fought for."
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Park’s removal was based on his “extensive” criminal background.
“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.”
Since his return to office, Trump has urged ICE officers to deliver “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” invoked wartime powers to stymie immigration, and packed detention centers to the brim with immigrants, more than 40% of whom do not have a criminal record. ICE officials have snatched thousands of people off work sites and streets and, in some cases, agents have deported undocumented immigrants during routine court check-ins.
In May, border czar Tom Homan estimated the administration had deported roughly 200,000 people since January.
Why did Sae Joon Park self-deport?
Park moved to the U.S. at age 7 on a green card, his attorney said. After high school, he enlisted in the army, and was deployed to Panama, where he fought in the 1989 operation to overthrow the country’s de facto leader.
He was shot twice during that conflict, was honorably discharged, and received a Purple Heart for his bravery. But that’s where his problems began. Park turned to drugs for relief from PTSD-related nightmares and one night, was arrested for buying crack cocaine. He later skipped a court-scheduled drug test and served more than two years in prison, his attorney said.
When he got out, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents revoked his green card. Park appealed the decision and was allowed to remain in the U.S. so long as he checked-in annually with immigration agents.
That was until early June. At his check-in, ICE officials told Park they would detain him if he did not leave the country within weeks, Ramos, his lawyer said.
Sae Joon Park was shot twice while fighting in the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, known as Operation Just Cause. He received a Purple Heart for his bravery.
“I get it. 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,” Park said to Hawaii News Now before he left for South Korea. “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.”
Ramos said new case law could help overturn Park’s convictions. He has submitted a request to the Queens County District Attorney’s Office in New York to lower Park’s bail-jumping conviction to a misdemeanor, which he says could provide a pathway to reopen the removal case and bring Park back to the U.S.
“It’s a story of redemption,” Ramos said. “War shows the need for society to give second chances.”
Can military veterans be deported?
Former members of the Armed Services aren’t immune from deportation.
A Government Accountability Office report published in 2019 found that 92 veterans were deported between 2013 and 2018, 85% of whom were legal permanent residents and 30% of whom had applied for naturalization.
ICE, the report said, is required to take additional steps to remove noncitizens who served in the military, including considering the person’s overall criminal history, evidence of rehabilitation, family and financial ties to the United States, employment history, health, and community service.
Sae Joon Park, 55, with his son.
It’s unclear how many veterans have been deported since Trump took office or if the administration has been following those policies.
In a June 24 letter to Trump administration officials, sent just a day after Park’s departure, nine Democratic members of Congress requested information on the servicemembers facing immigration proceedings and the policies being implemented to assist them.
They estimated that upwards of 10,000 veterans have been deported.
“These individuals have demonstrated their commitment to our nation through their military service, and the prospect of their removal from the country they swore to defend raises serious questions about our nation's obligations and values,” they wrote.
Contributing: Trevor Hughes
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:
L.A. Army veteran with Purple Heart self-deports to South Korea under threat of deportation
Seema Mehta
Fri, June 27, 2025
An Army veteran who grew up in Van Nuys and was awarded a Purple 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 old, grew up in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley and held a green card, flew back to his homeland under threat of deportation at the age of 55. He said he is being forced to leave because of drug convictions nearly two decades ago that he said were a response to the PTSD he suffered after being shot during military action in Panama.
“It's unbelievable. I'm still in disbelief that this has actually happened,” Park said in a phone 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.”
Asked to comment on Park, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Park has an "extensive criminal history" and has been given a final removal order, with the option to self-deport.
Park said he suffered from PTSD and addiction in the aftermath of being wounded when he was part of the U.S. forces that invaded Panama in 1989 to depose the nation’s de facto leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega.
But now Park, a legal immigrant, is targeted by federal authorities in President Trump’s recent immigration raids that have prompted widespread protests in Los Angeles and across the nation. Federal authorities have arrested more than 1,600 immigrants for deportation in Southern California between June 6 and 22, according to DHS.
A noncitizen is eligible for naturalization if they served honorably in the U.S. military for at least a year. Park served less than a year before he was wounded and honorably discharged.
Since 2002, over 158,000 immigrant service members have become U.S. citizens.
As of 2021, the Department of Veteran Affairs and DHS are responsible for tracking deported veterans to make sure they still have access to VA benefits.
Park’s parents divorced when he was a toddler, and his mother immigrated from South Korea to the United States. He followed her a year later. They first lived in Koreatown, moved to Panorama City and then Van Nuys. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in 1988.
Struggling at first to learn English and acclimate with his classmates, he eventually became part of the Southern California skateboarding and surfing scene of the 1980s, which is when television editor Josh Belson met him. They have been close friends ever since.
“He’s always got a smile, a very kind of vivacious energy about him,” said Belson, who attended a nearby high school when they met. “He was the kind of person you wanted to be around.”
After graduating, Park said he wasn’t ready to attend college, so he joined the military.
“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 said. “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, where he said they experienced a firefight the first night there. The following day, he said he was carrying an M-16 when they raided the house of one of the “witches” Noriega allegedly followed. He said they saw a voodoo worship room with body parts and a cross painted in blood on the floor.
While there, he heard gunfire from the backyard and returned fire. He was shot twice, in his spine and lower left back. The bullet to his spine was partially deflected by his dog tag, which Park believes is the reason he wasn't paralyzed. A military ambulance was delayed because of the firefight, but a Vietnam veteran who lived nearby rescued him, Park said.
“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 said.
He was then evacuated to an Army hospital in San Antonio. A four-star general awarded him a Purple Heart at his bedside. Then-President George W. Bush visited wounded soldiers there.
Park spent about two weeks there, and then went home for a month or so, until he could walk. His experience resulted in mental issues he didn't recognize, he said.
“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 said. Eventually, “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 started self-medicating with marijuana, which he said helped him sleep. But he started doing harder drugs, eventually crack cocaine. He moved to Hawaii after his mother and stepfather’s L.A. store burned during the 1992 riots, and married. After Park and his wife separated, he moved to New York City, where his addiction worsened.
“It got really bad. It just got out of control — every day, every night, all day — just smoking, everything,” Park said.
One night, in the late 2000s, he was meeting his drug dealer at a Taco Bell in Queens when police surrounded his car, and the dealer fled while leaving a large quantity of crack in his glove compartment, Park said.
A judge sent Park to rehab twice, but he said he was not ready 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 said. “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, 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.
Read more: Abcarian: Wasn't the president supposed to be deporting criminals?
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.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Seema Mehta
Fri, June 27, 2025
LOS ANGELES TIMES
An Army veteran who grew up in Van Nuys and was awarded a Purple 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 old, grew up in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley and held a green card, flew back to his homeland under threat of deportation at the age of 55. He said he is being forced to leave because of drug convictions nearly two decades ago that he said were a response to the PTSD he suffered after being shot during military action in Panama.
“It's unbelievable. I'm still in disbelief that this has actually happened,” Park said in a phone 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.”
Asked to comment on Park, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Park has an "extensive criminal history" and has been given a final removal order, with the option to self-deport.
Park said he suffered from PTSD and addiction in the aftermath of being wounded when he was part of the U.S. forces that invaded Panama in 1989 to depose the nation’s de facto leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega.
But now Park, a legal immigrant, is targeted by federal authorities in President Trump’s recent immigration raids that have prompted widespread protests in Los Angeles and across the nation. Federal authorities have arrested more than 1,600 immigrants for deportation in Southern California between June 6 and 22, according to DHS.
A noncitizen is eligible for naturalization if they served honorably in the U.S. military for at least a year. Park served less than a year before he was wounded and honorably discharged.
Since 2002, over 158,000 immigrant service members have become U.S. citizens.
As of 2021, the Department of Veteran Affairs and DHS are responsible for tracking deported veterans to make sure they still have access to VA benefits.
Park’s parents divorced when he was a toddler, and his mother immigrated from South Korea to the United States. He followed her a year later. They first lived in Koreatown, moved to Panorama City and then Van Nuys. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in 1988.
Struggling at first to learn English and acclimate with his classmates, he eventually became part of the Southern California skateboarding and surfing scene of the 1980s, which is when television editor Josh Belson met him. They have been close friends ever since.
“He’s always got a smile, a very kind of vivacious energy about him,” said Belson, who attended a nearby high school when they met. “He was the kind of person you wanted to be around.”
After graduating, Park said he wasn’t ready to attend college, so he joined the military.
“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 said. “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, where he said they experienced a firefight the first night there. The following day, he said he was carrying an M-16 when they raided the house of one of the “witches” Noriega allegedly followed. He said they saw a voodoo worship room with body parts and a cross painted in blood on the floor.
While there, he heard gunfire from the backyard and returned fire. He was shot twice, in his spine and lower left back. The bullet to his spine was partially deflected by his dog tag, which Park believes is the reason he wasn't paralyzed. A military ambulance was delayed because of the firefight, but a Vietnam veteran who lived nearby rescued him, Park said.
“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 said.
He was then evacuated to an Army hospital in San Antonio. A four-star general awarded him a Purple Heart at his bedside. Then-President George W. Bush visited wounded soldiers there.
Park spent about two weeks there, and then went home for a month or so, until he could walk. His experience resulted in mental issues he didn't recognize, he said.
“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 said. Eventually, “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 started self-medicating with marijuana, which he said helped him sleep. But he started doing harder drugs, eventually crack cocaine. He moved to Hawaii after his mother and stepfather’s L.A. store burned during the 1992 riots, and married. After Park and his wife separated, he moved to New York City, where his addiction worsened.
“It got really bad. It just got out of control — every day, every night, all day — just smoking, everything,” Park said.
One night, in the late 2000s, he was meeting his drug dealer at a Taco Bell in Queens when police surrounded his car, and the dealer fled while leaving a large quantity of crack in his glove compartment, Park said.
A judge sent Park to rehab twice, but he said he was not ready 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 said. “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, 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.
Read more: Abcarian: Wasn't the president supposed to be deporting criminals?
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.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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