Pirates' Jung Ho Kang caught in Trump VISA crackdown, but does he deserve one after three DUIs?

… may not get back into the U.S. this year 

Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang was fortunate to have a South Korean judge give him a break in his court case from last December.

Kang was arrested for a DUI when he crashed his rented BMW in Seoul, South Korea in December, which is bad enough, but then he fled the scene. He also lied and said that he had not been driving the car, though the blackbox refutes that.

As a result, the judge sentenced him to eight months in prison. which would have devastated his baseball career in the U.S. He would have missed all of this season, and perhaps, Major League Baseball would have banned him for another year.

Fortunately for him, the judge suspended the sentence and said that if he was crime-free over the next two years, he would not require Kang to serve the time in jail.

Issues

There are a number of issues involved with the Kang case. How did he obtain a work VISA if he had two DUIs in Korea prior to 2015? Did the Pirates know about the previous DUIs, or should they have? What is the status of the alleged sexual assault charges leveled against him in Chicago last year?

And most important, since DUIs preclude immigrants from entering the country and will serve as a reason for deportation under Trump's new rules, does he even deserve to be allowed to enter the country again?

Two previous DUIs and the Pirates did not know this?

This was not Kang's first DUI. According to Korean news agencies, this was his third. He had two previously, in 2009 and 2011, when he was playing professional baseball in Korea.

Yet, the Pirates, who signed Kang to a four-year, $11 million contract in Dec. 2014, claim to have had no knowledge of those two infractions. A Google search could have provided them with that information, but so be it.

[The Pirates paid more than $5 million for the rights to sign him, so they have a significant investment in Kang.]

If he was in Pa.

As Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook noted in a recent column, Kang would have spent time in a Pennsylvania prison if the crime had occurred here. "If I’m reading Pennsylvania law correctly, a third DUI would mean jail time from 10 days to five years, depending on the perpetrator’s blood alcohol concentration."

Kang's blood-alcohol level was .084, which is just above the forbidden level in Pa., but in South Korea, the criminal level is .05.

Cook also wrote that after watching the video from the dashcam, "It’s hard to say Kang should get any break from the South Korean legal system after watching dashcam footage of his accident. He is shown traveling too fast to navigate a right bend in the road. He runs over the median before hitting a barrier and careening back on the highway. He is lucky he wasn’t injured or killed. He is lucky he didn’t injure or kill anyone else."

[Link is below]

Legality of returning Kang to U.S.

The problem right now has to do with Kang receiving another work VISA to return to the U.S. According KDKA-TV, "The biggest [problem] is his visa, because under President Trump’s new tougher rules, DUI is cause for rejection, as well as deportation. But immigration lawyers KDKA spoke with believe Kang will probably get special treatment."

Special treatment? Why?

KDKA continues, "Coonelly, in an interview on KDKA Radio, said the team has lawyers working on the issue. 'To try to help Jung Ho to travel to the United States, get back with the team, get re-acclimated with the team, and to live up to the commitments that he’s made in the treatment program that Major League Baseball has put forward for him and that he has accepted',” Coonelly said.

Finally, KDKA said that Coonelly concluded, “We can put our arms around him and help him to become the young man and the baseball player we know he can be to turn his life around.”

What a crock!

Why should a professional athlete -- or any athlete -- or any millionaire -- receive "special treatment"?

Pirates' problems

The first legal issue is whether or not the Pirates violated any U.S. immigration laws when they signed for Kang's VISA in 2015. A worker cannot be allowed to obtain one of these VISAs without the support of an employer.

"Foreign nationals who have obtained work-based visas, which have been sponsored by U.S. employers, are also eligible to work in the United States."

The Pirates obviously violated the immigration laws when they signed this VISA approval in the first place. They had to verify that he had no criminal record in Korea, which we now know that he had. They are now claiming that they did not know, but it was their obligation to know when they signed the document.

After Kang's arrest in December, Pirates General Manager Neal Huntingdon said this about the prior DUIs, "We didn't uncover it."

The P-G said in December, "According to a State Department official, the consular officer reviewing visa cases might require a medical examination to determine whether there is a visa ineligibility if someone has been charged with drunk driving."

They repeated that in 2016.

However, after Trump placed tougher restrictions in place since he took office, a DUI is a reason to reject any immigrant and it is a reason for a current immigrant with a working VISA to be deported.

Sexual assault case in Chicago not resolved

Last June, during a trip to Chicago for a series against the Chicago Cubs, Kang was accused by a young woman of sexual assault. She went to a hospital and had tests taken in the incident, and she was then interviewed by police.

However, no charges have been filed against Kang in the incident since the police have not been able to find the alleged victim. In most cases like that, the charges would be dropped. However, by not dropping them, the police are likely saying that they believe that such a case exists.

Kang cannot be convicted of anything in that case without having his day in court, but it again reflects upon his judgment and character.  I do think that the case will ultimately be dismissed.

If the Pirates really cared about Jung …

Coonelly's statement after Kang's sentence was announced shows how disingenuous the Pirates are. Their only concern is getting him back onto the field, not in helping him recover from his addiction. "We will continue to do whatever we can to assist he and his representatives in their efforts to resolve all necessary matters so that Jung Ho will be able to travel to the United States to prepare for and to play in the 2017 season, but his reporting date remains undetermined,” said Coonelly in a February 14 statement.

Yes, just get him on the field. Forget about his off-the-field problems that got into this mess in the first place.

If a person in the U.S. is convicted of a DUI, the judge will likely give him or her a chance to improve by going to an alcohol rehab for 30 days. 

It this is the second DUI, the judge will probably require a 60-day stay.

If it is a third DUI and the person flees the accident and lies about being the driver, it would likely be six months.

Perhaps that will help Jung more than anything else. He has an obvious problem with alcohol that indicates that he is probably addicted. Getting him sober should be the major priority for the Pirates right now -- and then keeping him sober.

Trying to get him on the field before taking care of that business shows how callous the Pirates have been in their approach to this.

How will the fans react?

Cook asked that question in his column, but he also presented something that should concern everyone if Kang does not get treatment for his problem.

"You might want to see Kang in the Pirates lineup, but do you really want to see him driving on our streets? … It will be interesting to see fan reaction to Kang when/if he makes his 2017 debut at PNC Park. He quickly became a fan favorite his first year here – the 98-win season in 2015 – and received a tremendous ovation when he was wheeled out on the field before the wild-card game against the Cubs after his traumatic leg injury that September. There was not a lot of negative blowback against him last summer after the allegations in Chicago became public.

"Now?

"After a third DUI?

"My guess is fans will cheer Kang when/if he plays again, especially after he hits a home run or gets his first big hit. But they’ll be glad if they don’t see him driving on their way home from the ballpark."

Kang is scheduled to make $2.5 million this year and $3.0 million next.

Conclusion

I really like Jung Ho Kang as a baseball player. He is an outstanding third baseman for the Bucs and they have no one who is similar to his caliber.

I just loved him in 2015 when he first came to the Bucs. He was such a motivator in the 98-win season.

However, I would like to see him return to sobriety before taking the field again. MLB is requiring him to go through some kind of treatment, but he may need more than a slap on the wrist.

I do not, however, think that he deserves to receive another work VISA until it can be determined that he has received some alcohol treatment somewhere other than in the U.S. He should be held to the same standards as any other immigrant, and that means that he really does not belong in the U.S. under current or even past immigrant regulations.

That, of course, would mean that his baseball career for the Pirates would be ended.

Do not despair baseball fans. Donald Trump's immigrant regulations punish only the poor or middle-income immigrants, not the wealthy. Just as Joey Porter has thus far avoided the justice system because of the big bucks of the Rooneys, those of the Pirates may do the same.

Which is wrong.

Dashcam Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJtD5EzQXYc