HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0125.003 2024-2026Patti Cook
Box6960—Kamuela,11196743_
•r - .• s808-937-2833
February 16, 2025
The Honorable Jenn Kagiwada and Members
Hawaii County Council — Governmental Operations & External Affairs Committee
Meeting: Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 — 9AM
Re: GOEAC — Res. 74-25 and Comm 125 — DEFER ACTION PLEASE
AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENTS WITH
FEDERAL AND STATE PARTNERS TO SUPPORT THEIR CONTINUED COOPERATION WITH
THE HAWAI] POLICE DEPARTMENT FOR THE SAFETY OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAI'I
Authorizes the Police Department to enter into two agreements with the Department of Homeland
Security relating to immigration and customs enforcement and one agreement with the Federal
Bureau of Investigations relating to the Safe Streets Task Force.
Aloha — I'm Patti Cook from Waimea and apologize for this late testimony. I ask the
Council Committee to defer action on this proposed resolution for a number of
urgent reasons:
Testimony submitted by attorney Sandy Ma with The Legal Clinic is very detailed
and addresses the complexity of the immigration issues here on Hawai'i Island and
across the state (and country), and the constitutional protections all residents
including those who are undocumented or in the process of becoming
documented across the island and state have and that must be observed and
protected.
Further, may 1 add:
1) Our Hawai'i County Police Department is doing a good job —given the
resources they have — to protect public safety. They put themselves on the
line every day. They are, however, clearly stretched manpower -wise due to
funding constraints and existing vacancies. Therefore, this action to add
more to their responsibilities is not timely and there is no certainty the
county will be reimbursed or otherwise adequately compensated for the time
commitments to fulfil these additional responsibilities relating to
immigration and customs enforcement.
2) Our Hawai'i County Police are not trained in immigration law and protocols
to adequately protect the constitutional rights of residents who may be
involved in or targeted for immigration and customs enforcement.
3) Documents which are examples of prior such agreements are referenced in
the submittal from Mayor Alameda but not attached and not posted to the
county website as of 3PM Sun., 2/16/25. After a very time consuming council
website search, 1 was unable to locate the three referenced attachments
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since shortly after your committee agenda was posted and now even though
1 called out their absence Friday, 2114/25 when unable to locate, I am still
unable to locate even though Comm 125 was added to the site. 1 did receive
pdf copies of the attached 3 docs from Council Member Kagiwada from 2016
and 2017 (fortunately no longer in force), only to learn that these are offered
as EXEMPLARS, not specific drafts of what proposed agreements might
look like today in a gravely more politicized environment wherein
constitutional rights and rule of law are being seriously challenged on many
fronts. Best I can tell, the people of Hawai'i County have NOT been able to
review these attachments to better understand what is being proposed in
relationship to ICE, the FBI and Homeland Security.
Why am 1 so concerned? In early 2017 shortly after the election of President
Trump, our County experienced ICE immigration/deportation procedures in South
Kona which County Police assisted with because agreements in the attached pdfs
were in place. Police department leadership advised us at the time that because
the county had accepted federal funding for police -related equipment and training,
the quid pro quo was our police department personnel had to provide assistance.
Those 2017 actions were not viewed by many of us in the community as
appropriate and further, we viewed them as very probably having violated
constitutional rights of immigrants. We know for a fact it did result in deportation
of a respected South Kona coffee farmer who was a contributor to our island
community and economy as a tax payer who deserved fair treatment based on
constitutional rule of law.
At the very least, more community discussion is needed about this complex
situation related to immigration. As documented in The Legal Clinic's testimony,
our island has a large number of undocumented immigrants who are otherwise
law-abiding community contributors often working in agriculture, food service,
construction, healthcare, etc. — doing work we urgently need to be done — often
work that others refuse to do. Also, they pay taxes including social security, to
which they will have no claim.
Ironically, the IRS has a process in place to enable undocumented immigrants to
pay taxes legally!
Without question, America's immigration policies need extensive overhauling, but
this resolution would sanction a band aide approach with serious unintended
consequences that at the least exacerbate fear and disruption in communities
across the island — more so now that the President has lifted bans that protected
schools, hospitals and faith groups/churches/temples as safe spaces.
One more key point (and 1 do apologize for this being long), the 2025 State
Legislature has heard a number of immigration -related bills including HB22 which
is set for a 2nd hearing this coming Wednesday, 2/19/25.
For the first hearing on HB22, there were about 91 written and in -person testifiers
in favor, 52 opposed. Among those testifying in person, on zoom or in writing in
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support were HGEA, Unite Here/Local 5, and the much larger Hawai'i State AFL-
CIO, plus ACLU Hawai'i, Catholic Charities Hawai'i, the State Office of the Public
Defender, the Hawai'i Children's Action Network, Filipino Chamber of Commerce of
Hawai'i, and importantly, The Legal Clinic and the Hawai'i Coalition for Immigrant
Rights (HICIR). This is a rare combination of entities weighing in to support the
same piece of legislation.
I share this to urge that the Hawai'i County Council defer action to the State
Legislature to address complex immigration matters in a cohesive, coherent
comprehensive statewide approach applicable across all four counties.
Please defer action. And mahalo for your commitment to doing what's best for
Hawai'i Island.
A hui hou — Patti Cook
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