Fear leads immigrants to self-deport

Sae Joon Park, a 55-year-old Purple Heart veteran who has lived in the United States for 48 years, self-deported to South Korea on Monday, after being notified by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he has to leave the US within three weeks or he would be detained and forcibly deported.

The Purple Heart is a military decoration awarded to those wounded or killed while serving the US military.

Also on Monday, the Supreme Court lifted an order from a federal judge who had placed restrictions on the Donald Trump administration from deporting foreigners to countries where they have no previous ties.

The US administration has forcibly deported or tried to deport people to third countries, including Guatemala, Libya and South Sudan, countries that are listed as "unsafe" by the US government.

The fear of being detained and sent to an unfamiliar country has caused some to self-deport.

Park came to the US with his mother when he was 7, and he joined the army, and was shot twice while he fought in Panama in the 1990s. To combat his post-traumatic stress disorder after the war, Park turned to drugs for relief and violated the law. As a result, he went to jail in 2009 and served 2.5 years in prison. His green card was revoked, but he had been allowed to stay in the US as long as he stayed clear of drugs and checked in every year. He has then stayed clear of drugs, raised two children and takes care of his 85-year-old mother.

"This kills me," Park told a local TV station. "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's treatment has caused outcries online. "It's totally despicable how this Purple Heart veteran has been treated," one posted on Reddit.

"He fought and bled for us, and this is the government's thanks in return," another said.

Trump has promised to deport immigrants who committed crimes, but ICE data showed that 47 percent of current detainees don't have a criminal record.

Data from TRAC, a data center at Syracuse University, showed that 71.7 percent of ICE detainees have no criminal records.

There are 59,000 detainees in ICE facilities across the country, 40 percent over the capacity of 41,500 beds that Congress last allocated for the agency.

Videos of aggressive raids by ICE agents, not distinguishing between those who committed crimes and those who didn't, have been circulating on social media.

One of the videos showed ICE agents chasing and pinning down Narciso Barranco when he was cutting the grass for a restaurant in Santa Ana, California.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to raise money to get Barranco back from ICE detention through legal procedures. So far, more than $200,000 has been donated.