Dan Heiskala

Daniel Heiskala was born in South Korea and adopted by a U.S. couple, joining their three biological children. According to his parents, he came to the United States as “a half-starved five-year-old boy.” The family lived on a farm in Michigan, and then later moved to North Carolina and eventually to Texas, where Heiskala attended West Lake Christian High School. He speaks no Korean and has had no contact with anyone in Korea since his adoption. In 1994, when Heiskala was in his early twenties, he was convicted of stealing a car and sentenced to seven to ten years in prison. He was paroled out after serving slightly more than two years, and has had no further convictions since that time. In 2003, he was put in deportation proceedings on the basis of the 1994 conviction. Because he was convicted after a trial rather than on a guilty plea, the government has taken the position that he is ineligible for discretionary relief even though his conviction predates the 1996 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act.33. His case is currently on appeal. This is believed to be the citation: Choo Doc Kim v. Alberto Gonzales, No. 05-2485 (1st Circuit)

Status : Unknown, but believed to be in US