A Korean-American mother of two children who has married a U.S. citizen is facing deportation from the country, prompting a petition to prevent her family’s separation.
Sarah Chung Cobil has recently received a deportation notice to return to South Korea by September from the USCIS, according to CONNECT, a religious group in Connecticut. She moved to Connecticut from Korea in 1999 and has lived in Norwalk since. After marrying a Caucasian man 14 years ago, she is raising two sons—fourth and eighth graders—while running a flower shop.
Even though She married a U.S. citizen, she has always been an undocumented immigrant. The reason for that still remains unknown, but CONNECT explained that she has followed a terrible legal advice when moving to the U.S. from Korea 18 years ago.
Cobil has been under surveillance since 2010. While traveling with her family in the U.S. Virgin Islands, she was arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since then, the ICE has agreed to allow her to stay in the country as long as she files an annual report to prove that she has never left the country.
However, She suddenly received a notice, which ordered her to leave the country by Aug. 27.
The local community has since rallied behind her to protect her family. On July 7, an event to launch a petition for her was held at St. Jerome Church. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Norwal Mayor Harry Rilling attended the event in support of her.
“Where are they asking me to go, leaving my babies behind?” She said during the event at the church. “What am I going to do in Korea? I can’t go there.”
More importantly, Cobil’s younger son is suffering from spina bifida, a rare form of a disease that affects one’s spinal cord.
She has secured a temporary stay in the country after her objection was received by the court at an immigration court in Philadelphia on Monday.
“The situation may have been different of her marriage itself was a fraud,” CONNECT said. “But this is a different case. We’re going to protest until she is fully exempt from punishment.”
By Koohyun Chung
