Sae Joon Park

Sae Joon Park is a U.S. Army veteran who served in the 1989 invasion of Panama, where he was wounded in combat and awarded the Purple Heart. After emigrating from South Korea at the age of seven, he spent nearly fifty years in the United States before self-deporting in 2020 due to the Trump administration's immigration policies, which targeted him following legal troubles related to past drug addiction. Park's case has drawn attention to the challenges faced by noncitizens who serve in the military and the harsh consequences of immigration enforcement practices.