Voters Could Add Immigrant Protection Measures For HPD In November
Police officials say department doesn’t participate in immigration enforcement anyway.
In the wake of state legislation seeking to protect immigrants from overzealous federal crackdowns, a Honolulu charter amendment proposal with similar goals is inching forward at the city’s charter commission.
It is intended to shape Honolulu Police Department policy with three broad aims: to protect immigrants from people impersonating law enforcement officers; to safeguard immigrants’ access to places such as courts, hospitals and schools; and to require HPD to verify the identity of agents and their legal basis for immigration enforcement operations before assisting them.
The proposal — P045 — left some of its specifics vague for now so that it can be wordsmithed for maximum effect, said Jess Moore of Honolulu, who submitted it.
“There are people who have long records of service and certainly expertise in law who can certainly take my ideas and make them better,” said Moore, who works for a California-based tech company.
She said her proposal was prompted by reports from Hawaiʻi and the continent of immigrants being threatened or extorted by people purporting to be ICE agents, along with reports of detentions while visiting locations such as courts and schools that for years had been treated as generally off limits for immigration enforcement.
“We’re fighting for something,” Moore said. “It’s this idea of what we expect our society, especially here in Hawaiʻi, to look like.”
Awaiting Input From Police
Immigrant advocates who support the proposal said it could reinforce for Honolulu police that they can only assist with enforcement operations supported by judicial warrants, which are mandatory court orders.
“A judicial warrant issued by a court provides a legal basis for entry or enforcement actions, whereas an administrative warrant issued by a federal agency does not authorize entry into private or sensitive spaces without consent,” Bettina Mok, executive director of The Legal Clinic, said in written testimony to the commission.
“The absence of a clear, codified City policy leaves residents vulnerable and undermines the trust necessary for effective community policing,” Mok added in her testimony.
HPD officials maintain that the amendment is not needed because the department does not assist with immigrant enforcement anyway.
“Federal civil immigration enforcement is the responsibility of federal authorities and falls outside the department’s primary jurisdiction,” spokesperson Claudette Springer said.
The proposal doesn’t appear to have garnered any opposition so far. And an advisory committee the commission formed to evaluate it recently recommended approval, moving it one step closer to the November ballot.
The committee, the Permitted Interaction Group on Operations and Public Protection, described P045 as compelling and said that codifying the police department’s “responsibility to protect the constitutional rights of all persons, regardless of immigration status, is a necessary step to safeguard the community against unauthorized enforcement actions and impersonators.”
“Given the backdrop of what’s been going on we feel that there’s an opportunity here to address a widespread problem, not just on the continent but here,” Commissioner Jacob Aki said at the April 27 meeting where the committee’s recommendation was announced.
At its May 11 meeting, though, at the suggestion of Commissioner Trey Gordner, the proposal was tabled until testimony could be sought from the police department and the city’s police commission about the way the proposal might affect operations and any suggested amendments.
Gordner described that as “a routine step.”
As of now, Springer said, the department has no plan to offer testimony.
Language And Education Needed
Honolulu has wrestled with measures to protect immigrants in the past.
In 2017, during the first Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants, the City Council approved a resolution declaring Honolulu a “haven of aloha” and calling for a limit on cooperation with federal enforcement.
But two years later, the council let a bill die that would have prohibited HPD from cooperating with federal authorities to detain and investigate undocumented immigrants.
The new charter proposal comes during a markedly different era of immigration enforcement, however, said Amy Wake, pastor at the Wesley United Methodist Church and a longtime civil rights activist.
“Trump 2.0 is exceedingly more dangerous,” Wake said. “We have seen what happens when ICE moves into a city or a state and threatens not just immigrants, but anyone who looks like an immigrant. There’s intentional fearmongering, instilling of fear in our communities.
“And we just want to make sure that our police and our city officials are not a part of that.”
Wake said it’s important to build the proposal into Honolulu’s charter, which is the city and county’s governing document, “because this is who we are in Hawaiʻi, we are a state of immigrants.
“This makes it clear that as the city of Honolulu, we’re going to take care of our people. We’re going to make sure that their rights are protected and that people feel safe here,” she said.
If the proposed amendment were to go to voters, it would have a good shot, predicted Colin Moore, a political science professor at University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.
“This is a democratic state that has a lot of immigrants and where attitudes are favorable to immigrants,” he said.
But how a proposed amendment is worded will be critical to its prospects, he added.
“If they just asked, ‘Shall the charter amendment limit HPD assistance with federal immigration enforcement,’ That probably wouldn’t pass,” Moore said, while its prospects would improve if it were “prescriptive rather than confrontational.”
A public education campaign also would play a large role, he said.
“If there hasn’t been one, then I think the reaction from most voters is just to vote no if they don’t understand it, which is understandable,” Moore said.
Liza Ryan Gill, co-coordinator of the Hawaiʻi Coalition for Immigrant Rights, agreed.
“I think it will take a tremendous amount of effort if it gets on the ballot because there’s so much education that needs to happen on these issues,” said Gill, fresh off successful advocacy efforts at the state Capitol, where legislators this month passed a slate of bills to limit how the state and local law enforcement agencies work with immigration authorities.
Those bills are now on Gov. Josh Green’s desk, awaiting his signature or veto.
While the state legislation applies to county governments, too, Gill said the charter proposal would be complementary.
“The county is really where the normal, everyday person touches government,” she said. “So it really makes sense that at a policy level, things that impact communities really deeply, like the understanding of public safety, happens first and foremost, not at the state level but at the county level.”
“It’s very validating to put out an idea and see it come to life and people engage with it. And that I can participate as a citizen. I really love that.”
Jess Moore, Honolulu resident and author of the proposed charter amendment
The charter commission is set to take up the proposal again on May 26.
“It’s very validating to put out an idea and see it come to life and people engage with it,” Jess Moore said. “And that I can participate as a citizen. I really love that.”
Voters have the opportunity to amend the charter through ballot amendments every decade. Final recommendations for which proposals should be on the November 2026 ballot must be made by mid-July so they can be translated into other languages before being sent to the City Clerk in mid-August.
