A South Korean man flown to the U.S. 37 years ago and adopted by an American couple at age 3 has been ordered deported back to a country that is completely alien to him.

“It is heartbreaking news,” said Dae Joong (DJ) Yoon, executive director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, who had been in contact with Adam Crapser.

Crapser remains confined in an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington, pending his deportation.

Crapser waived an appeal during the hearing Monday because he is desperate to get out of detention, his Seattle attorney, Lori Walls, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“I’m sure he doesn’t have any idea what he can do in Korea,” Yoon said in a phone interview from his group’s offices in Annandale, Va.

Crapser’s plight mirrors those of thousands of others. Yoon’s group says an estimated 35,000 intercountry adoptees lack U. S. citizenship. It is backing legislation in Congress to address that.

wtop.com