Bring Our Purple Heart Hero Sae Joon Park Home

My name is Teri LaPointe, and I’m writing to ask for your help in supporting Sae Joon Park, who is my partner and is family to me. I’ve known Sae for over 40 years, and he has been my partner for the last 11 years.

Sae is a U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient. He served bravely during the Panamanian War in 1989, where he was shot twice and nearly lost his life in combat. After returning home, he rebuilt his life in Hawaii, raising a family, caring for his mother who now suffers from dementia, holding down a stable, successful job, paying taxes, and staying an upstanding member of the community.

Decades ago, Sae began using drugs as a form of self-medication for severe PTSD, a symptom most veterans endure after such trauma. He made a mistake involving drug possession and a failure to appear in court. He took full responsibility and served two and a half years in prison for that crime. Since then, he has turned his life around. For 14 years, he attended annual ICE check-ins and lived under deferred action, believing his compliance kept him safe.

That changed this year.

At his most recent ICE check-in, Sae was told he would be deported—not because of anything new he had done, but because of the current administration’s immigration policies. Even though he had never missed a check-in in the past 14 years and had built a stable, honest life, he was now facing forced removal.

On June 23, 2025, Sae involuntarily self-deported to South Korea, a country he hasn’t called home since he was 7 years old. He left behind his two American children, his elderly mother, and extended family from the only country he’s ever known—the country he took two bullets in the back for.

Sae is now struggling to survive in a place he barely remembers, and he needs your help.

Sae is one of the most loyal, courageous, and warm-hearted people I’ve ever known. He’s funny, witty, always optimistic, and fiercely devoted to the people he cares about. He made amends for his past, followed every rule given to him, and lived with dignity. He deserves a chance to return to the life he built through hard work and sacrifice.

Sae has always shown up for others—and now, he needs us to show up for him. I’m writing this today to ask for your help in raising funds for Sae’s legal fees to bring him back home to the United States. He deserves to be with his family, in the country he risked his life to serve. Please consider donating, sharing, and standing with us as we fight to bring Sae home.

We will be using any funds donated to pay for his legal fees to address both his past and his present issues with the forced removal. Any funds raised in excess of Sae’s legal fees will be donated to groups that support veterans and immigration legal aid. Your support means everything. Anything you can give means the world to us.