Question: Is Hawaii a sanctuary state?
Answer: No. A bill this year in the state Legislature would have made Hawaii a so-called sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants, but it died in the House after passing in the Senate.
The measure, SB 557, would have limited local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal authorities enforcing immigration violations against undocumented immigrants who pay their taxes and have no criminal convictions. You can read the measure, and testimony for and against it, at 808ne.ws/sb557.
As of 2015 there were about 45,000 undocumented immigrants in Hawaii, the bill said, most of whom were people from Japan or the Philippines who had overstayed their visas.
According to The Associated Press, Oregon was the first to approve a statewide sanctuary law, in the 1980s, followed by California, decades later. In addition, hundreds of U.S. cities or counties — Honolulu is not among them — have enacted sanctuary laws aimed at keeping law enforcement officials focused on local crime, rather than detaining people suspected of being in the country illegally, the AP said.
Your question was prompted by President Donald Trump’s desire to release into sanctuary states and cities migrants now being detained at the United States’ southern border. Mayors of potentially affected cities dismissed Trump’s comments as a publicity stunt that could backfire.
His 2016 campaign promise to block federal funding for sanctuary cities has gone unfulfilled, and sanctuary- type laws are expanding despite his opposition. More than 120 new laws have been enacted throughout the country since January 2017, according to “The Success of Sanctuary Under Trump,” published by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a nonprofit based in California. You can read the paper at 808ne.ws/paper.
Q: Were any Hawaii parents involved in the college admissions scandal?
A: No one from Hawaii was among the 50 people charged in indictments unsealed March 12 in federal court in Boston that alleged a nationwide scheme of fraud, cheating and bribery in the world of elite college admissions. Thirty-four defendants are from California — where confessed mastermind William “Rick” Singer ran a college-prep company — and the rest are from Texas, Florida, Connecticut, New York, Nevada, Maryland, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Canada. They include parents, college coaches, exam administrators and others who, among other things, are accused of paying or accepting bribes to fraudulently admit students into elite colleges.
See the list of individuals and the status of their cases at 808ne.ws/fedcase.
Other readers have also asked about this topic, wondering, like you, whether the scheme reached Hawaii or whether more people willbe charged. (Singer claimed to have clients in 81 U.S. cities and five foreign countries and that 750 students benefited from the scheme from 2011 to 2018, according to news reports.)
Liz McCarthy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, declined to provide information beyond that already released.
“Due to the ongoing case, we cannot comment. However, during the initial press conference, the U.S. Attorney did state it is an ongoing investigation and did not rule out the possibility of additional charges,” she said in an email.
Q: In “Old Town Road,” is that an ukulele?
A: Yes. The New York Times describes the first 25 seconds of this hugely popular hip-hop/country song as “a lonely howl delivered over a plucked ukulele.” The tune is simple to learn, according to free instructional videos online.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
