Korea Daily, News Report, Byung Il Kim, Translated by Kat Choi, Posted: Mar 01, 2011

The South Korean Consulate in Los Angeles has appealed for leniency in the case of a Korean adoptee facing deportation.

The woman, who requested anonymity, arrived in the United States from her native South Korea in 1975 when she was 8 years old. In 1998, she was arrested on charges of fraud, embezzlement and falsification of documents, but disappeared soon after she got out on bail.

She received a deportation notice from immigration authorities on Feb. 24, after she was caught by local police some 13 years after her disappearance. The woman, now 30, is being held at the Las Vegas Detention Center.

Immigration officials asked the Korean Consul General for a temporary travel document for her so they can proceed with her deportation. However, the Consulate has asked for leniency on humanitarian grounds, citing the fact that the woman has no known relatives back home. Nor does the speak Korean.

This is the second case of its kind in as many months. In January, immigration officials dropped deportation proceedings against another U.S. adoptee and a single mom name Seo, after the Korean Consulate appealed.