Kiwi Everlee Wihongi has lived in the United States for more than 25 years and is now in an ICE detention centre in California, after a three week visit back to New Zealand.<\/p>\n
She lives in Wisconsin, legally, where she has been training to be a welder.<\/p>\n
Everlee returned to New Zealand for three weeks to celebrate a family milestone – an uncle’s 80th birthday.<\/p>\n
She flew back to the States on April 10 but, instead of walking straight through immigration as she had numerous times before, she was detained by ICE officers without any explanation.<\/p>\n
Everlee’s sister-in-law, Courtney Wihongi, says ICE officers told her that they needed to do a few checks and that she’d see family members on the other side of the baggage carousel.<\/p>\n
That didn’t happen.<\/p>\n
“It’s been over a week, and we still don’t have an answer why”<\/p>\n
Courtney says it’s been difficult to keep in touch with Everlee.<\/p>\n
“Luckily, she was travelling with some of our other family members so they saw her get walked away, but trying to find out where she was at the whole weekend, trying to get in contact with her was very difficult.<\/p>\n
“When everything was first happening, she was nervous, scared, all those feelings which are completely normal, just because there was so much that was unknown. Now that we’ve been able to talk to her, we have gotten some legal council and they’ve been able to give us a small little bit of a plan, so that is comforting.”<\/p>\n
Courtney Wihongi says the family are now able to talk with her daily.<\/p>\n
“Every single time she calls, it’s ten cents a minute she’s charged for the calls, we try to keep them short. Our biggest thing is trying to keep her positive and hopeful as of right now.”<\/p>\n
After her initially detention at LA Airport, Everlee was taken an ICE processing centre in Adelanto, north east of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
“It’s very crowded. In the room that she sleeps in, there’s numerous other females sharing one room, any basic hygiene items that she needs she has to pay for.”<\/p>\n
“She’s told us a some things here and there, but we try not to dwell on that, because again, we’re trying to keep her hopeful, but in a sense, prisoners are treated better in a prison.”<\/p>\n
“You’ll always hear her laugh before you see her enter a room. She’s just a very fun person.”<\/p>\n
Courtney Wihongi says her sister-in-law is a welder, but is also a professional make-up artist.<\/p>\n
“She’ll go to work, do all her welding stuff with a full face of make-up, that’s just the person that she is.”<\/p>\n
“As of right now, our game plan is, I’m talking with the lawyer we’ve got, there is a possibility that she can qualify for bail. One of the things he needs for that is to know what she was detained for. There is a specific form that he told us that ICE officers would be able to supply for her and she’s asked for that form twice now and has been told that she cannot get it.”<\/p>\n