New York governor pardons Purple Heart veteran deported to South Korea

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has pardoned a Purple Heart recipient who left the United States last year under threat of immigration detention, removing a significant legal barrier in the Army veteran’s effort to return home.

Sae Joon Park, 57, was among six people granted clemency for having “displayed positive changes in their lives” and “earned their second chance through rehabilitation,” according to a news release from Hochul’s office Friday.

The pardon does not allow Park to immediately return to the United States. However, it eliminates a criminal conviction that had prevented him from seeking forms of relief from removal otherwise potentially available to a lawful permanent resident, his attorney, Danicole Ramos, said by phone Monday.

Park said he reacted with “disbelief” when he learned of the pardon.

“I was ecstatic; I couldn’t believe it,” he said by phone Tuesday from South Korea.

U.S. Army veteran Sae Joon Park received a Purple Heart after being shot twice by enemy forces while serving in Panama. (Sae Joon Park)

Park immigrated from Seoul as a child and spent nearly his entire life in the United States. He enlisted in the Army at 19 as a permanent resident and deployed to Panama during Operation Just Cause in 1989, when he was shot twice in the back.

He received a Purple Heart, but his military career ended less than a year after he enlisted when he tested positive for cocaine and received a general discharge under honorable conditions.

Park struggled with addiction for years afterward, compounded by post-traumatic stress disorder, he told Stars and Stripes in May.

He was arrested in New York in 2007 for drug possession. While on probation, Park fled to Hawaii because he feared failing a court-ordered drug test.

U.S. marshals arrested him, and he was convicted of drug possession and second-degree bail jumping. He served approximately 2 ½ years in prison.

Those convictions eventually carried immigration consequences.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Park last year and gave him three weeks to leave the country or face detention.

Park chose to leave and arrived in Seoul on June 24, 2025, his first time in South Korea in three decades.

His second-degree bail-jumping conviction was considered an aggravated felony under immigration law and formed the basis for his removal, Ramos said.

Because of that conviction, Park was barred from seeking relief that could have allowed an immigration judge to consider factors such as his military service, family ties and rehabilitation, according to a Friday press release from the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic.

Hochul’s pardon changes that equation but does not guarantee Park will be allowed back into the country. His attorneys now plan to ask the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen his case and set aside the removal order, Ramos said.

Whether the board agrees to reopen the case is discretionary and “not a guarantee,” he said Monday, adding that Park still has “a long road ahead.”

More than 14 months after arriving in South Korea, Park said Tuesday that he is still adjusting to living away from the country where he spent most of his life and is “fighting loneliness.”

The pardon, however, has given him renewed hope of returning to Hawaii.

“I’m trying to stay positive, and I’m really hopeful now that [the clemency] might open doors for me to get back home,” he said.