By Alice K. Kim
Photo Illustration by Eric Sueyoshi
TOLEDO, OHIO — It has been about 16 months since Andrew Jung’s parents left the United States for Korea, and for the most part, Andrew has gotten used to life without Mom or Dad. For more than a year now, Andrew has been living with the family of Robert Flamm, the principal of Emmanuel Christian School, which Andrew attends. He keeps himself busy with school and extracurricular activities, managing to maintain an A average, while working a part-time job and playing on the golf and basketball teams.
Although Andrew spends most of his time at the Flamms’ house, his personal affairs are watched over by his legal guardian, Leonard Jessop. Jessop keeps close tabs on Andrew, dispersing the weekly allowance provided by Andrew’s parents, keeping track of the teen’s finances and grades, and pursuing the Jungs’ ongoing legal battle.
The Jessops have been friends with the Jungs ever since Andrew and their son Seth were preschool classmates. Dae Hwan and Young Mi first came to Toledo in 1984 on Dae Hwan’s student visa. After completing an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Toledo, the Jungs briefly went to Korea, and then returned to Toledo on another student visa. But Dae Hwan’s petition for a visa continuation was unexpectedly denied. Then, the Jungs failed to attend their deportation hearing because the court notice was sent to an old address. They mistakenly assumed they were in the clear when Dae Hwan began work as a sushi chef and his employers sponsored him for an I-140 work permit. Early in the morning on Feb. 14, 2005, agents with the Department of Homeland Security appeared at the Jungs’ door. After failing to provide proper documentation, Young Mi was taken into custody while Dae Hwan and Andrew feared for the future and tried to keep their situation quiet.
Once the Jungs’ situation became known, many members of the Toledo community rallied to support the family. Jessop, in particular, is incensed by what he views as a serious miscarriage of justice. For more than two years, he has led a campaign on behalf of the Jungs, spearheading petition drives, locating legal counsel for Dae Hwan, and even starting the organization “Citizens in Support of the Jung Family.”
Most recently, Jessop, with the help of two other friends from Emmanuel, filed a pro se appellant’s brief on behalf of the Jungs before the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Jungs no longer have an attorney, since their last attorney asked to be removed from the case, citing difficulties in working with Jessop. Jessop, who feels that the attorney was inept and ill-suited to the case, was not sorry to see him go. The Jungs are now representing themselves.
The brief, which was filed in the summer of 2006, rests largely upon the argument that the Jungs’ deportation was based on an overly stringent interpretation of the law by the INS (now referred to as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services).
The original deportation notice accuses the Jungs of entering the U.S. fraudulently because Dae Hwan did not enroll at the University of Michigan as he originally planned. In response to this charge, the brief argues that international students frequently transfer schools without any problems, and that Dae Hwan did pursue a degree at the University of Toledo — a fact that the INS was evidently aware of, given that the department had sent a copy of the deportation letter to the University of Toledo. The brief contends that Dae Hwan’s original reason for entering the United States as a student is still valid, and that his F-1 student status should not have been revoked.
Currently, the family is waiting for a final judgment. If the appeal is denied, the Jungs will be barred from returning to the United States for at least 10 years.
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Dae Hwan and Young Mi still regard Toledo as home, and although their chances are very slim, they have not given up hope that they will be allowed to return to the United States eventually. After living in Toledo for most of their adult lives, the Jungs have found the transition back to their native country very difficult — even moreso than when they first moved to the States.
The couple currently lives in an apartment in the city of Gwangmyeong, a bustling suburb on the outskirts of Seoul. For more than a year now, both Dae Hwan and Young Mi have been looking for employment, but with little luck. Dae Hwan, who speaks English fluently, has attempted to find a job teaching English, while his wife has applied for sales positions at a nearby shopping center. However, both have found that employers are reluctant to hire them. “Age discrimination is huge here,” explained Dae Hwan during a recent phone call. “After age 45, you’re done.”
At the moment, the Jungs are financially stable, thanks to an inheritance left to Dae Hwan by his late father. Though they are not in immediate financial straits, both Dae Hwan and Young Mi have found their situation to be emotionally draining. Dae Hwan explains that while he lived in the U.S., he never worried about money, but in Korea, he finds that he has to worry about money every day. He lists myriad factors that add to this constant pressure: expensive living costs, higher taxes and a compacted society that thrives on intense competition at every level. Social status is vastly important in Korean society, and Dae Hwan has found it difficult to connect with his peers, given that he is currently unemployed. “At my age, I should have a job. Most of my friends are working for big companies or are heads of their own businesses: big shots. But after being gone for 20 years, I have nothing to show them.”
Things haven’t been so easy for Andrew, either. For the past year and a half, he has been in flux, answering to three sets of parents (the Flamms, the Jessops and his own), not to mention a handful of other households where he sometimes stays when the occasion arises. Each family has its own rules and culture, and constantly adjusting to the differing standards has been challenging for the soft-spoken teenager. Especially after having spent the summer with his own parents in Korea, Andrew is more aware of the cultural differences of living with American families as opposed to his own.
“You know, just general stuff, like, Korean moms always want you to eat as much as you can. [With American families] meals are not as much as I’m used to, and when I ask for more, they’re like, ‘Oh no, we’ll save it for leftovers.’ But my mom would just be like, ‘No, just eat it all up.’”
When the Flamms originally took Andrew into their home, they had planned to keep him until Andrew graduated from high school. However, although Andrew is now only a sophomore, they have decided that they don’t want to do that anymore. Their youngest son graduates at the end of this school year, and after that, the Flamms say they would prefer not to have any more kids in the house.
“Andrew’s not a bad child,” Robert explained during a recent interview. “He’s a respectful young man and asks permission for things. But sometimes it’s just stressful having a non-family member around.” Despite having lived with the Flamms for over a year now, Robert admits that Andrew still doesn’t really feel like part of the family. Robert views his role as being more like a college house parent, rather than a father figure for Andrew. “I would have liked to have had more of a parent relationship with him,” he says.
Right now, Andrew doesn’t know where his future home is. He’d prefer to live with a Korean family, if possible, but Dae Hwan is hesitant about putting Andrew in another unfamiliar situation. The Jessops are considering the possibility of taking him, but even though Leonard is Andrew’s legal guardian, he has had his own issues with caring for Andrew. Jessop, having raised his own three sons, feels strongly that Andrew hasn’t learned adequate leadership skills, and is disappointed that Andrew hasn’t taken more initiative to advocate publicly for his parents.
He attributes this to the fact that Andrew was pampered as an only child. Jessop feels that there are obvious cultural differences between his and the Jungs’ philosophies of child-raising.
“I can’t parent like a Korean would parent. I just don’t know how,” he admits.
But Jessop does have firm beliefs about what values should be instilled in children, and as Andrew’s acting parent in the U.S., he takes it upon himself to make decisions for Andrew that sometimes differ from what Dae Hwan and Young Mi want.
One prime example is the issue of Andrew’s violin lessons. For Young Mi, it has always been important for Andrew to study the violin, and the Jungs made sure that the cost of Andrew’s lessons would be covered through his weekly allowance. According to Jessop, however, Andrew rarely practiced the violin and showed little interest in it. So, Jessop cancelled Andrew’s lessons and pushed him to get a part-time job at a local pizza parlor instead.
For Dae Hwan and Young Mi, when parenting conflicts like this arise, it is difficult to know what to do. On the one hand, they worry that Andrew is being pressured to act against his nature, and on the other, they are deeply grateful for everything their American friends have done for them. Sometimes Dae Hwan and Young Mi argue about how to handle these situations. “My wife doesn’t want to just sit back. She wants to help Andrew by talking to Leonard. But I think Andrew has to learn to work out issues by himself,” Dae Hwan explains.
Currently, Dae Hwan and Young Mi are tossing around the idea of immigrating to Canada, in order to be closer to Andrew. The Jungs feel strongly about Andrew attending high school and college in the United States. Andrew agrees with his parents. Last summer he visited his parents in Korea for 10 weeks. He enjoyed his stay and grew especially close to his cousins, with whom he keeps in touch via e-mail. After he returned to the States, Andrew considered moving to Korea, but like his parents, he feels that for now, he should stay and finish school.
Andrew admits that sometimes he grows weary of the responsibility of publicly advocating for his parents. At first, he was excited by the media attention that surrounded his case, but soon found himself feeling overwhelmed. Recently, he worked on a large-scale lobbying project that involved mailing postcards to members of Congress and senators. This past Christmas Eve, he was interviewed by a local TV news station. When asked if he feels pressured by all of these projects, Andrew nods.
“It kind of wears me out when I have to do that kind of stuff. Last year, I kind of didn’t want to do it, but this year, if something happens, I’ll try to do it more willingly.”
Andrew says the people in Toledo are still engaged in his family’s situation. Occasionally, he will read letters to the editor on the issue in the newspaper, or catch a random talk show discussing the case. But on the whole, Andrew prefers that people not make a big issue out of it.
“People bring it up now and then, especially when the anniversary [of the deportation] happened. They’re like, ‘Andrew, I don’t know how you do that.’
“I think the best thing a friend can do when somebody is in a difficult time, [is] just pretend [nothing’s] really happened. They’ll acknowledge it, but they’ll still kid around with you, and stuff like that. That’s what my friends did.
“It’s easier when they don’t make a big deal about it. It seems like life is normal then.”