Immigration in the islands

The Pacific Ocean represents as daunting a barrier against border crossings as any wall contemplated for the U.S. southwest, which is where most people assume the real problem of illegal immigration exists and where they guess the greatest benefit of immigration reform will accrue.

The truth, however, is that while they may be fewer in number, there are people in Hawaii lost in the wilderness of the nation’s "broken" immigration system, each with a story of personal frustration, even misery.

One of them is Gabriela Andrade, now 26, who came to Hawaii from Brazil with her parents and two siblings on a tourist visa in 2001. Because of a variety of circumstances, Gabriela is the only one in her family who is undocumented, although now at least she has a two-year waiver from prosecution enabled by the Obama administration’s recent executive order known as DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

"Under this, at the moment I can’t attend school here paying as a resident, unfortunately, because that’s my main goal, to be able to get an education," Andrade said.

There have been past attempts to reform the system, but the effort in 1996 actually made things much worse, said Honolulu immigration attorney David McCauley. Pleas lodged by citizens seeking a "hardship" waiver for an immigrant family member now rarely succeed, McCauley said.

"Husbands or wives of green card holders have to wait three years," he said. "Siblings of citizens from the Philippines have to wait 23 years. They could do things that would shorten waiting time for employment-based immigration and family-based immigration."

And the islands harbor more people in trouble with the system than most residents might guess. Immigration attorney Maile Hirota cited an estimate from the Pew Hispanic Center of about 35,000 undocumented immigrants in Hawaii. Combined with the people who are waiting in the legal system, Hirota added, the tally grows even longer.

These people face most of the same issues as those in California or Arizona or big urban centers, but, said Drew Astolfi, reunification of family members represents the biggest heartbreak. Astolfi is state director of the public-interest advocacy group best known by the acronym FACE (Faith Action for Community Equity). The nonprofit organization sponsored a rally for immigration reform recently near the state Capitol. Afterward, he, Andrade, Hirota and other supporters of immigration reform gathered to voice their concerns.

Hirota agreed about the heartbreak of families kept apart. She questioned the assertion of critics who say those here without authorization need to wait for all those already in the legal system to get through first.

"People are always saying, ‘Well, get in the back of the line," Hirota added. "They don’t realize, the back of the line, you mean 25 years? In the back of that line? The people that are doing it are waiting 25 years, and that’s because they are doing things right, not because they screwed up.

"Family immigration, people think, ‘I have an uncle, or an auntie or a cousin,’" she added. "The current legal family immigration system, the most distant relative that can petition for you is a sibling.

"So you’re talking about immediate family members that are waiting for decades to be together."

Since immigration law is set and administered by the federal government, Hawaii residents, like those in every other state, must wait for action on the federal level. They hope that the changes in the political climate surrounding immigration reform mean that a long-awaited overhaul may come at last. At the very least, there’s real hope that the so-called "DREAM Act," which would allow people like Andrade, who came into the U.S. as children, to apply for legal status.

But there are a few things that Hawaii can do on its own, such as to create a local version of the DREAM Act. Amy Agbayani, a longtime champion of immigrant and minority rights, is director of the Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity Program at the University of Hawaii, where on Thursday the Board of Regents will consider such a proposal. If the initiative is approved, Agbayani said, Hawaii will join 12 states that allow the undocumented who came to America as minors to enroll and pay resident tuition (see story above).

In addition, there are a few legislative proposals that seek to improve the lot of immigrants and undocumented workers here. Senate Bill 58 and House Bill 266 are twin measures moving through their respective chambers that propose a statewide language access resource center.

And concerns about agricultural workers, especially on Maui, has given rise to HB 52, which takes aim at racial profiling.

"It’s a big problem on Maui," said attorney Kevin Block, immigrant services coordinator for Maui County’s Department of Housing and Human Concerns. "Police will ask victims and witnesses for their Social Security number, which has made them reluctant to call the police."

Laurie Temple, staff attorney for the ACLU of Hawaii, said perceptions of ethnicity or nationality, such as through foreign languages being spoken, can prompt questions about a person’s documents that might not be directed to someone else. Temple attended both the rally and the Jan. 25 hearing of HB 52, which would make "bias-based policing" a civil rights violation by law enforcement agents.

She was joined in supporting the bill by numerous organizations, including the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Veronika Geronimo, the coalition’s executive director, testified before the House Judiciary Committee that community forums in the past year had been conducted on Maui and were attended by "members of the Latino community."

"At these forums, community members, mostly Spanish-speaking, shared that they did not feel safe calling the police, even when they were victims of crime, for fear of being harassed or detained by law enforcement," Geronimo said in her prepared remarks. "This leaves domestic violence survivors in particular more isolated and vulnerable, and fearful of seeking safety and protection."

It’s not only the Hispanic immigrant population at risk, Astolfi said.

"On Maui also there’s Tongans, and there’s a real question: Do they target Tongans?" he said. "I think that it has died down, and there’s been a real change in at least Maui County’s attitude about it. But the state bill would just make it not possible to go forward with that stuff."

"And provide an enforcement mechanism," Temple said.

The issue about Tongans, Block said, is one that’s peculiar to Hawaii. Dating back to the 1970s, rules about port entries by some Pacific peoples — including Western Samoans but more commonly among Tongans — were much looser, he said. And that has led to unanticipated problems now, with the rules changing around them.

"Tongans were able to come in on their parents’ passports, without having an immigrant visa," he said. "A parent would bring her three or four kids in, and they’d grow up without having green cards.

"Now they’re in their 20s and 30s, and they’re undocumented."

Part of the resistance to immigration reform nationally stems from misunderstanding about the complexities of the problem and the ripple effects, said Calleen Ching, staff attorney at the Hawai‘i Immigrant Justice Center, a division of the Legal Aid Society of Hawai‘i.

"Many people here think immigration reform will apply to the those ‘illegal immigrants’ crossing the border without authorization," Ching said. "But, frankly, it also will help many others, people who are our possibly our next-door neighbors — families with wives and husbands who came in to the U.S. legally, with authorization, to join their loved ones.

"The kids may have gone to school here, the parents may have worked at the fast-food restaurant down the street," she added. "Somehow they were not able to complete the immigration process. They would also be beneficiaries of immigration reform."