HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0125.006 2024-2026Committee: Governmental Operations and External Affairs
Hearing Date/Time: Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 9:OOam
Place: West Hawai'i Civic Center & Videoconference
Re: Testimony of the ACLU of Hawaii: OPPOSES Resolution
74-25
Dear Chair Kagiwada, Vice Chair Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder, and Committee Members:
The ACLU of Hawai'i opposes Resolution 74-25, which authorizes the Mayor to enter
into intergovernmental agreements with federal and state partners to support their
continued cooperation with the Hawai'i Police Department (HPD) for the safety of the
County of Hawai'i.
Specifically, we raise objections to the two proposed agreements between HPD and the
Department of Homelands Security (DHS), relating to Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), that will "designate certain employees of HPD as Customs Notice
Officers."
Background of the 287(g) Program and its Impact on Immigrant Families
The 287(g) program — named after a section of the 1996 Immigration and Nationality
Act —allows local law enforcement agencies, including sheriffs and police, to carry out
certain duties normally reserved for federal ICE agents. This includes investigating a
person's immigration status and holding people for transfer to ICE detention. The result
is that even the most minor of interactions with local law enforcement can lead to
detention, deportation, and separation from their families.
When local police act as ICE's force multipliers, an ordinary police encounter like the
one above can ruin a person's life and tear a family apart.
That is why millions of people across the country live in fear of encountering police or
other law enforcement as they go about their daily lives. Immigrants, their family
members, and their friends are all less likelv to come forward as witnesses, provide
crime tips, or seek police protection for fear of immigration enforcement. That means
everyone is less safe, including our immigrant families and neighbors in Hawai'i.
Racial Profiling and Other Civil Rights Abuses Run Rampant Under The 287(g)
Program
ACLU's report, License to Abuse: How ICE's 287(g) Program Empowers Racist Sheriffs
and Civil Rights Violations, examines the records of sheriff offices and other law
enforcement agencies that participate in Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE)
287(g) program.
As the ACLU report, makes clear, xenophobia and rights abuses historically run rampant
in the program. We find that 59 percent of 287(g) sheriffs have records of anti -immigrant
rhetoric, and over half have expressly advocated inhumane federal immigration policies.
Nearly two-thirds of 287(g) partners have records of racial profiling and other civil rights
abuses, while more than three-quarters operate detention facilities with documented
patterns of abuse and inhumane conditions.
One such federal program utilizes 287(g) agreements, which delegate federal
immigration enforcement authority to state and local police. Being in the routine
business of immigration enforcement incentivizes local police to make pretextual arrests
— with the actual goal of identifying immigrants to detain for ICE. It emboldens law
enforcement officers across the country to use immigration enforcement as a means of
threatening and harassing people in immigrant communities.
In closing, the people of Hawai'i County have the right to redirect local resources to
pressing community needs — and away from local police taking on federal immigrant
enforcement.
Joining the 287(g) program is voluntary under federal law and comes at local
taxpayer expense with no measurable benefits. Studies suggest 287(g)
undermines both public safety and public health as trust in local agencies
plummets and fear rises.
Given the alarming results highlighted in ACLU's report relating to the 287(g) program,
we strongly oppose Resolution 74-25 and urge this committee to defer the bill until the
actual agreements are provided for review and careful deliberation.
Sincerely,
Carrie Ann Shirota
Carrie Ann Shirota
Policy Director
ACLU of Hawaii
cshirota(a-)-acluhawaii.org
The mission of the ACLU of Hawaii is to protect the fundamental freedoms enshrined in
the U.S. and State Constitutions. The ACLU of Hawaii fulfills this through legislative,
litigation, and public education programs statewide. The ACLU of Hawaii is a non -partisan
and private non-profit organization that provides its services at no cost to the public and
does not accept government funds. The ACLU of Hawaii has been serving Hawaii for
over 50 years.
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