Dear Editor:
Regarding Matthew Park's letter in your December 16
issue, no matter how we feel about the fairness of
continued US military presence in South Korea, I don't
think it's fair to bash the US based on this one
incident. Certainly, when US soldiers committed
crimes in Japan, we have seen that they have been
prosecuted and the media covered those. I don't know
enough about the incident in Korea but perhaps there
was a reason why no one was prosecuted. Perhaps it
was determined to have been an accident and not a
criminal matter. Just because no "main US media"
covered the story doesn't mean there was some kind of
injustice or that the US values Korean lives cheaply.
Thousands of crimes and incidents of all sorts right
here in the US are not reported by the major media.
The recent and horrific Kansas murder trial of five
people by two ex-felon brothers were not covered by
the major print media (although it was on Court TV and
the Drudge Report.)
As far as the Korean businessman in Mr. Park's letter,
what was the complete story on him? Was he a US
citizen, a permanent resident, here on non-immigrant
visa, or has no status? We don't know. Even though
Mr. Park was being sarcastic and asked a rhetorical
question, I don't think a US citizen like Mr. Park has
to worry about the INS detaining him at the airport
because of traffic violations or even any major
criminal matter (I suppose if a naturalized citizen is
known to be a terrorist the INS might be able to
detain him or her at the airport). The Korean
businessman was probably not a US citizen. If he
were, all he needed to do was to show proof of
citizenship and be released. If there was a pending
criminal matter, the police, sheriff, or federal
authorities would take over custody of the person, but
not the INS.
Liem Doan, Esq.
Copyright © 1999-2002 American Immigration LLC, ILW.COM
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