KAILUA-KONA — The knock the Ellis family dreaded for months and hoped never to hear arrived Thursday afternoon at their Waimea home.
What awaited on the other side of the front door wasn’t entirely unexpected, but the life-changing immediacy of it was.
Three men in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles, two U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents and one Big Island police officer, asked to speak with Graham Ellis, the patriarch of the family, alone.
His wife, Dena, an American citizen, watched from a distance.
After a few minutes of conversation, Graham, a 67-year-old British national and undocumented immigrant who has made his home on Hawaii Island for the past 36 years, agreed to fly to Oahu the next day and turn himself in to the Enforcement and Removal Operations field office in Honolulu. His deportation proceedings would then begin.
One of the DHS officers — all of whom Dena Ellis stressed have been cordial and treated the family, specifically her husband, impeccably during the past several days — pulled Dena Ellis aside and made an unsolicited comment that wasn’t an answer to any question asked.
“This isn’t because of Trump,” he said.
An acceleration of events
After President Donald Trump took office and made his stringent immigration priorities official, the Ellises sat down and braced for a difficult discussion.
“Graham understood there was the possibility someone could come at any time and he was suddenly feeling unsafe,” Dena Ellis said. “We came to the decision it would be best for him to move back to England. He was planning to leave in September.”
They chose a multiple-month buffer between their decision and Graham’s intended departure date to allow time for him to settle his affairs around the island and spend one more summer together as a family.
Though they have no children together, Dena Ellis’ four kids live with them and one of Graham Elliss daughters is set to arrive today from Texas for a long summer stay.
They are a family of performers, circus performers to be exact, and had plans for a trip to Kauai to entertain and teach children in summer programs through the circus arts. It’s a value and a practice Graham Ellis has been passionate about his entire life, and a passion he passed on to his stepchildren.
Graham Ellis also was set to administer his final two-week, superhero-themed circus camp in July, a longstanding tradition he intended to wind down after this year.
He chose it as his last event before DHS came knocking for two reasons: because he knew he was on his way back to England and because he’s suffering from lukemia. He was diagnosed in April 2016.
All his plans to tie up loose ends and enjoy time doing what he loved with those he loved were scrapped Friday, however, when the Ellis family received disconcerting news. His deportation was to be expedited.
He has been a resident of the federal detention center in Honolulu since.
The legal process
Graham Ellis expected he’d be afforded the typical grace period for those who agree to voluntarily depart, and his attorney Kevin Block, an immigration lawyer with offices on Maui and the Big Island, said under previous administrations that likely would have been true.
“Typically they would let him stay longer, but this is a different time,” Block said.
There is considerable confusion about the terminology used to describe undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Often, they are referred to as “illegals,” but that implies they committed a crime. Based on federal law, however, Ellis’ presence in Hawaii is not a crime.
Those who enter the country without going through the appropriate immigration channels are guilty of a misdemeanor that can subject them to fines and a six-month prison term.
But Ellis last entered the U.S. under the visa waiver program in 2002. By staying in the country for a longer period than the program alotted, he commited a civil offense, and thus is not being charged with any crimes.
The visa waiver program allows citizens of 19 countries with which the U.S. has good relations to forego the visa process, which is more lengthy and bureaucratic.
However, by entering into the program, those immigrants waive their rights to due process. Because of that, Ellis is not legally entitled to an extended period of residence to get his affairs in order. It was a revelation that took him and his wife by surprise Friday.
“It was all just so very sudden and upsetting to us,” Dena Ellis said, her voice welling up with tears. “This is very traumatic for our entire family to have him ripped away like this. We’re just asking for a little time, just a few more days together. When Trump says he’s going to make America great again, how does ripping families apart do that?”
Graham Ellis never applied for a green card despite being married to an American citizen because of legal barriers arising from circumstances that occurred more than 30 years ago.
Block’s hoped to earn leniency for Ellis during a hearing Tuesday in front of a federal immigration judge, despite there being no statutory right to ask for an extended stay prior to deportation. The decision will fall to the director of the ERO field office.
“Trump famously said he wants to go after the ‘bad hombres,’ but really the effect is that everybody who is here who gets discovered can now be deported,” Block said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Public Affairs Officer Lori Haley wrote in an email that “… while criminal aliens and those who pose a threat to public safety will continue to be a focus, DHS will NOT exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”
Community reaction
Ellis has spent his life on Hawaii Island, much of it spent in Puna, to help children in poor and disaffected communities find voice and passion through circus arts.
He has served on the Puna Community Council, was the founding president of the Kalapana Seaview Estates Community Association and started the HICCUP circus for at-risk youth who performed an anti-drug show called “Naturally High,” encouraging kids to get involved with community service.
Among several other endeavors, Ellis also helped Hawaii’s Volcano Circus and other nonprofits raise more than $500,000 as a grant writer. He founded the Bellyacres, what former Gov. Neil Abercrombie described as an “artistic eco-village” that spreads messages of sustainable living and led to the creation of the Seaview Performing Center for Education, or S.P.A.C.E.
For his efforts, Ellis has been recognized by several politicians and community leaders at the local, state and federal levels.
Mark Glick, Hawaii’s energy administrator and leader of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative from 2011-16 now leads energy and innovation as a professor in the Hawaii Natural Energy Institution at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He spent several years prior to those endeavors working with Ellis writing grant proposals.
“It frankly wasn’t surprising under this administration that someone like Graham would be one of those people unfortunately affected,” Glick said. “Knowing how well he’s served the community over the last 15 years I’ve known him, it’s somewhat tragic … and clearly this isn’t in the public interest.”
Democratic state Sen. Russell Rudermann, who represents Puna and Ka‘u, said if the ultimate goal of revised immigration policies is to get rid of the bad guys, they missed the mark entirely.
“I introduced him once and said, ‘Graham is a better American citizen than pretty much anybody else I know in our community,’” Rudermann said. “Which is ironic, because he’s not an American citizen. It’s terrible that this should happen to him.”
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.
