Feds targeted adoptee from South Korea because of crimes
SALEM, Ore. — A man who was adopted as a 3-year-old from South Korea almost four decades ago and flown to America is in detention awaiting deportation because of “the severity of his criminal history,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on Monday.
Adam Crapser was ordered deported last week back to a country that is completely alien to him. No one sought U.S. citizenship for him as he grew up in America, abandoned by one adoptive family, thrown into the foster care system and winding up with abusive parents. The lack of citizenship made him liable for deportation, especially after he built a criminal record.
ICE prioritizes immigration enforcement resources “on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security,” Rose M. Richeson, spokeswoman for ICE’s Seattle field office, said in a statement.
Richeson cited Adam Crapser’s criminal history, including convictions for assault and being a felon in possession of a weapon. Crapser’s immigration attorney said Monday that her client’s 1994 burglary offence — which served as a predicate for the “felon in possession” conviction — was for breaking back into the home of his criminally abusive second set of parents to retrieve two things that had come with him from the Korean orphanage.