Hawaii Police Department
should not assist ICE
As a resident of Kamuela, I urge our Hawaii County police chief and Police Commission to issue a public commitment to not support or assist with ICE/HSI/DHS immigration actions.
The Hawaii Police Department is tasked with protecting Hawaii County residents, not the federal government. Our tax dollars support the department to ensure safety and justice for all who call Hawaii Island home, regardless of immigration status, national origin or political affiliation.
We are deeply concerned about the presence of masked individuals without identification and warrants abducting people off our streets, businesses, schools and churches.
How are residents to know whether these are ICE agents or homegrown criminals impersonating ICE and preying upon the vulnerable?
The police department must ensure that Hawaii County residents are protected from such actions, and that law enforcement is not collaborating with or enabling operations that violate due process and constitutional rights.
Public safety requires trust, and the department’s policies, partnerships and leadership must reflect the values and legal protections owed to every resident of this island.
Mahalo for your attention to this matter at this critical moment for our community.
Helen Nahoopii-Takata
Waimea
EPA suspensions are
‘the act of insecure leaders’
Hundreds of EPA whistleblowers signed a letter denouncing Administrator Lee Zeldin’s politically motivated destruction of EPA regulations aimed at protecting Americans from harmful environmental exposures and at slowing climate change.
As I write this, people in many parts of the country are recovering from a merciless heat wave, and many in Texas are in mortal danger after flash floods caused the Guadalupe River to rise 30 feet in one hour. Climate change is real.
The EPA has an important role in slowing it by limiting emissions that accelerate the change.
Whistleblowers with the courage to confront Zeldin and the administration on this are heroes. They are calling for the agency to fulfill its core mission: protection of the American people.
The administration’s response? Suspension of those who wrote the letter.
This is the act of insecure leaders afraid of dialog with experienced staff within their organization. It reflects cowardice.
The response from EPA Press Secretary Brigit Hirsch, accusing the whistleblowers of unlawfully undermining the administration’s agenda “as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” is laughable.
No one voted for wholesale destruction of environmental protections, or for persecution of people brave enough to call Zeldin out for gutting the agency’s core functions.
Richard Leman
Honokaa
