Korean green card holder detained at US airport for over a week, faces deportation
Tae Heung ‘Will’ Kim, a PhD student who has lived in the US since he was 5, had just returned from his brother’s wedding in South Korea
A researcher at Texas A&M University flying home from abroad was detained for more than a week by immigration authorities at the San Francisco International Airport, sleeping in a chair and living off food sold in the airport, his family and lawyers said Thursday.
It was unclear why Tae Heung “Will” Kim, who is a legal permanent resident with a green card, was detained on July 21, his lawyer Karl Krooth said at a news conference.
Kim, who went to South Korea to attend his brother’s wedding, is now in removal proceedings to be deported and is being held at an immigration detention facility in Arizona, Krooth said, adding that he has yet to talk to his client.
Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that any green card holder who has a drug offence is in violation of their legal status and can be detained. His lawyers said Kim was charged in 2011 with misdemeanour marijuana possession in Texas, where recreational use is illegal.
His lawyers declined to discuss those charges on Thursday. But one lawyer told The Washington Post, which first reported on Kim’s detention, that he fulfilled a community service requirement and successfully petitioned for nondisclosure to seal the offence from the public record.
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