HONOLULU (KHON2) — Council members and community organizers on Kauai are hoping to ease concerns on Thursday, Nov. 6, after an ICE raid led to dozens of arrests across the Garden Isle in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 5.
Kauai County councilmember Fern Holland lives right across the street from one of the homes that was targeted in an ICE raid on Wednesday morning. She said dozens of federal officers pulled up in vehicles around 4 a.m.
“Very shortly after, they had a loudspeaker going, and they were basically reciting the address over and over and saying, you know, ‘Executing federal warrant, please come out with your hands up.’ That went on for a while. Then it went on in Spanish,” she said.
Holland added that various agencies were involve,d and she hoped to dispel some rumors that swirled in the community.
“There was no raids of restaurants, despite so many rumors that so many different restaurants, kitchens, people were dragged out of kitchens, that never happened. It does look like this operation was one large inter-agency operation,” Holland said.
The raids led to 44 arrests — two of the individuals are believed to be associated with the foreign terrorist organization “Tren de Aragua” based in Venezuela.
Community organizers said they are waiting for more detailed information.
“Of those that were rounded up, the officer had communicated to Fern that they’re going to go, they’re going to go through their papers and if they have the legal right to be here, then they can be here,” said Kauai Indivisible group leader Margie Merryman. “We’ve known in the islands that there is a big drug problem. So, if these people are over here doing humbug with us and bringing drugs here, good. Get rid of them.”
“I’m concerned about both sides of this issue, right? Like, I want to make sure that we’re getting drug dealers and criminals off of our streets. I think it’s important and I praise the federal agents if that’s, you know, really the target and really what they did,” Holland said. “But at the same time, like I do believe there’s a legal and important pathway that we have to citizenship that we need to be promoting, and we need to be assisting for workers to come here legally.”
Kauai Indivisible is hosting a community “Know Your Rights” workshop on Saturday, November 8, from 9-11 a.m. at Hale Lihue and over Zoom.