HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – New York Governor Kathy Hochul granted a pardon to Sae Joon Park, the Purple Heart veteran and Hawaii resident who self deported to Korea last year because of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
The Army veteran was shot in combat during the 1989 Invasion of Panama and suffered for years from PTSD. He had his green card revoked in 2011 after he was convicted of drug and bail jumping offenses in New York City.
His Purple Heart status allowed him to stay in the country, but when that protection was ended by the Trump administration, Park was forced to self deport in June 2025 after 50 years in the U.S., leaving behind his partner, children and parents.
The pardon opens the door for his attorneys to go to the Board of Immigration Appeals and begin the process of having his removal order vacated.
“This was the win we needed to at least move his case forward because we didn’t have much options to try to bring him back unless we got that pardon from Governor Hochul. So it’s a huge win. We’re not done yet,” said his attorney Danicole Ramos, associate director of the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law.
“I pray every night, and that’s always in the back of my mind that there’s a good chance that I could never make it home,” Park said. “It’s still not, it’s still not done, but the fact that like this makes it so much more hopeful.”
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