Korean-American Actress Amy Is Being Deported from South Korea

Television personality and actress Amy is being expelled from South Korea.

The troubled celebrity received a mandatory expulsion notice from the Seoul Immigration Office, for which she submitted a stay of execution to the Seoul Administrative Court. It has been revealed today that the appeal was denied this past April 16 by Judge Park Joon Suk.

According to immigration law and decree, the immigration office can execute deportation of a foreigner if they have been fined for breaking the law.  It can also prohibit entry into the country if there is concern for drug addiction and the safety of the public. Amy, who is a US citizen, was fined five million won (around 4600 USD) after being found guilty of abusing the psychotropic drug Zolpidem. In June of last year, the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office announced that Amy had been charged with violating the Act of the Control of Narcotics for using Zolpidem. She was later found guilty and charged with a fine the following September. This wasn’t Amy’s first run-in with the law. Previously in November 2012, Amy had received an eight month prison sentence and two years of probation for abusing Propofol.

Amy’s lawyer released an official statement today, April 20 KST, protesting the severity of the deportation order, calling it an “excessive sanction.”  According to her lawyer, the deportation order deviates from the “principle of proportionality” set in Article 37 Section 2 of the Constitution and should be retracted.

In an interview with Ilgan Sports, Amy stated that she had been reflecting on her actions and trying to live a new life when she received the deportation notice. In September 2014, when she was sentenced to the fine, she had been granted permission by the court to stay in Korea to reflect on her actions due to the fact that her parents also live in Korea. Amy also revealed that she tried everything she can to try to have the order retracted, but it wasn’t and so she decided to take it to court. She had even shown that she was willing to give her up her US citizenship, but to no avail as her appeal was denied in the end.

Amy continued to protest the severity of the deportation in her interview, saying that she has no family in the US whatsoever and is currently visiting hospitals due to her poor health. She is worried about her future in the US and how she can take care of her health there.

In the past, singer Yoo Seung Jun was also deported from South Korea after controversy over his naturalization into a US citizen right before he was to be drafted into Korea’s mandatory military service.

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