HONOLULU (KHON2) — Immigration enforcement across the islands was in high gear this week, with 50 people taken into custody for deportation-order violations, and others detained but cleared. Always Investigating went behind the scenes of a massive Kona enforcement action, which resulted in 22 arrests.
Though enforcement has always been happening, priorities and politics raise expectations and fears, and make enforcement actions appear more frequent and visible. KHON2 wanted to know much more about what’s really going on and see for ourselves how the human beings at the center of it are treated.
It’s dawn on Wednesday, May 7, in Kona, and federal agents are on the move. We’re there to observe, question without restrictions, to understand and to report. Our mission: to ask federal authorities, immigration advocates and the migrants themselves what they’re going through.
On this assignment, agents are enforcing removal for people far past their legal window to be in the country. We wanted proof and confirmed those on the list had been adjudicated in the due process of immigration court and a judge had issued final orders of removal.
Agents had a judicial warrant for a Captain Cook area residence where they believed all the people on orders to be. The nondescript driveway and overgrown foliage hide what turns out to be a sprawling compound of buildings. Agents announce their presence in English and Spanish.
After unanswered knocks, they make a forcible armed entry. We are not showing faces of the agents except for the woman in charge, nor showing identities of the people detained.
One after another, they’re detained, men and women alike, children in tow. The operation garners quick attention from concerned onlookers. They’re held back from entry, but they shout, hoping the migrants can hear.
“I was telling them recordar [to remember] llorar los abogados [to call their attorneys],” one advocate said.
“If you’re able to get to them,” another advocate asked, “if you’re able to go since we as the public and advocates cannot, if you’re able to remind them of their rights.”
After the compound is secured, KHON2 went inside. It’s cramped and dirty, walled-off boxes within structures, unsanitary shared restrooms and cooking areas.
KHON2 asked to talk to the detainees and assured them we are not showing their faces; we are not the government; they don’t have to talk to us or anyone, but if they will tell us anything, we’ll help the public understand what they’re going through.
KHON2 asked if all of them had the due process to this point.
The bilingual agent in charge asked and translated. Many answered yes, but not all, so KHON2 asked again: “Are you aware or have any further concerns about any next steps that are available to you? Do you know that this was the final deportation?”
“He says no,” the agent said of one of the men.
“So you’ll re-review that all with each and every case before any arrest?” KHON asked.
“Yes,” said Lucy Cabral-DeArmas, HIS-Honolulu special agent in charge. “We will absolutely review every one of them to make sure that we’re taking the proper process.”
Several noncitizen youth were there. One young man said he is a Konawaena High School student.
Several toddlers were there too; their parents said they are also foreign-born, but the littlest one, a little girl with tumbling curls, in the cuddling arms of her mother — was born here, an American citizen.
KHON2 asked: “Does she intend to keep the child with her or take her to her next stop?”
“Señora, no tiene contestar pero esta pregunta de la reportera que hiciste piensa llevarse su niña o si la quiere llevar aquí. [Miss, you don’t have to answer but the reporter wants to know if you are bringing your child or leaving her here,]She wants to take her child with her,” Cabral-DeArmas said.
And of this dilapidated place they’ve called home until now? They paid a landlord a lot of money.
“Cuantos, cuantos?[How much? How much?]” Cabral-DeArmas asked.
“$2,000 for three rooms,” some answered. “Two rooms for $2,000,” others say.
“It’s not the American dream,” Cabral-DeArmas. “For sure, nobody wants to come in and pay $2,000 to live in squalor.”
So KHON2 asked: “What are you going to do about the employers that are exploiting, the landlords that are exploiting the people, those who are making it possible for them to come here and live like this?”
“Under Homeland Security Investigations, that’s one of the areas of law that we enforce,” said Cabral-DeArmas. “So obviously we want to look in to see where they were working, and if the employer knew that these individuals were here in the country illegally, and that they knowingly hired them, that’s something that we’ll have to look into of course, depending on where the facts of the case take us.”
KHON2 also followed up with the County and tried to reach the landlord and are awaiting responses on how this could on so long to this extent.
KHON2 asked: Where will they probably be by the end of tonight?
“Potentially, the FDC is there in Honolulu for the males,” Cabral-DeArmas said.
And the women?
“If we find a detention center that will take them here, they’ll stay here, but most of the time, they end up on the mainland.”
The family units will stay in a hotel until the ERO or Enforcement and Removal Agency can house them until processed.
Cabral-DeArmas has been in immigration enforcement for a long time, spanning decades of different presidents and priorities.
She wants the public to understand this part of the job: “We all care about the community, and again, it doesn’t matter which law we’re enforcing. We do it in a very professional manner and compassionate manner, especially in situations like this.”
Among the 50 arrested statewide this week, the feds said some are convicted for drug, gun, drunk driving and violent crimes. For others, their only known crime is ignoring the prior order for deportation.
“We, and our partners, are committed to safer neighborhoods, stronger communities, holding bad actors accountable for their actions, and securing our borders,” Cabral-DeArmas said.
An ICE spokesperson affirmed that the following multilingual legal resources are provided to detainees:
ICE ERO serves control, or intake, documents to everyone we arrest by ICE and are detained at the FDC Honolulu. These include the below. During this time, we also allow a phone call from our holding facility at our office.
- Watching the Know Your Rights video (or giving them a printed version of the presentation)
- Consulate notification
- List of free legal service
- Document regarding their property
- National detention handbook
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Upon being booked into the FDC Honolulu, all detainees are given a detainee handbook from the FDC with the information they need regarding rules and services at the FDC, i.e. phone calls, commissary, sick calls, etc.