Fellows mentioned in this story:
Liza Ryan Gill
Yunji de Nies

From Hawai‘i News Now:

An O‘ahu state representative wants the community to step up its oversight of ICE agents in Hawai‘i.

The federal government has increased immigration enforcement across the state, now state Rep. Della Au Belatti is helping to launch the O‘ahu rapid response coalition, a hotline for people to report ICE activity.

“Creating a grassroots network to demonstrate that people here on O‘ahu are watching and that when we see (or) suspect that there might be some immigration enforcement going on, that we’re watching,” Belatti said. “We’re not there to impede or interfere, but we’re going to have volunteers out there who will call these incidents into our hotline. There will be a verification process, and then there will be a deployment of people who can witness and document.”

Belatti is pushing for a number of protections for immigrants this legislative session.

Advocates say the vast majority of undocumented people in Hawai‘i are non-violent and contribute to the community.

Liza Ryan Gill works for the Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

“Our undocumented population looks like a middle-aged Filipina, who overstayed her visa, who’s taking care of your grandma. That’s what it looks like,” Gill said. “And imagine that Lola, sitting in the federal detention center, not eligible for bond because she overstayed her visa, maybe she was in the process of trying to figure it out, it takes thousands of dollars sometimes, to go through this.”

Watch at hawaiinewsnow.com.