By Yiming Fu, Report for America corps member
Agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement are on Lahaina, advocates warn.
Normally ICE has no presence in the area, they say.
Veronica Jachowski is the executive director of Roots Reborn, an immigrant rights and advocacy organization on Maui. She said this presence has concerning ripple effects on the community, which is still recovering from the August 2023 fires. She believes detaining one person will send shockwaves of fear through families, workplaces and neighborhoods across the island. ICE does not typically have a a presence on Maui.
“It goes totally against the ethos of recovery,” Jachowski said. “People are still traumatized. And it is re-traumatizing our community. Critically, it is deteriorating the trust we have worked so hard to build over the last 13 months for them to be able to trust and move forward and ask for help from government agencies.”
Lahaina is known to be an immigrant community, and its diversity contributes to its rich culture. As of 2022, census data shows 32.7% of people living in Lahaina were born outside of the United States. Roots Reborn works with 700 immigrant households impacted by the fires.
Immigration attorney Kevin Block said Maui’s undocumented community members need protection. They’re dealing with PTSD, housing insecurity and other challenges after the fires.
Councilmember Tamara Paltin condemned the ICE’s presence in Lahaina calling it an “unacceptable attack on our community” and said it may cause thousands of survivors to retreat from critical government resources in the midst of fire recovery.
Paltin called on Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and Maui Mayor Richard Bissen to halt ICE’s presence in West Maui.
“We’re an immigrant community. We want to see everybody who is in our community be here through the recovery. This is not how you treat a recovering community from this kind of trauma.”
AsAmNews.com reached out to ICE to inquire why they were on island but did not receive comment before deadline.
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