{"id":402643,"date":"2026-04-29T04:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/402643\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T04:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:07:14","slug":"kiwi-being-held-in-ice-detention-faces-another-6-weeks-in-facility-before-new-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/402643\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi being held in ICE detention faces another 6 weeks in facility before new hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kiwi<\/p>\n

\nEverlee Wihongi has been in US detention since the start of April.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n

A New Zealand woman who is being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the US<\/a> will spend another six weeks in a detention facility awaiting her next hearing with a judge.<\/p>\n

Everlee Wihongi was taken into ICE detention when she was re-entering the US on 10 April following a family holiday in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Her family said they do not know why she was being held as she was travelling on a Green Card and they are all US citizens. Wihongi had a historic conviction for possession of marijuana that had been dealt with more than 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"Everlee<\/p>\n

\nEverlee Wihongi pictured with her sister.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n

Her mother, Betty Wihongi, said her daughter was pretty upset when the judge set the recall date for 10 June, meaning a further six weeks in ICE detention.<\/p>\n

The family had been searching for a skilled lawyer and said they have not had any assistance from New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Betty Wihongi said they have now retained a lawyer.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everlee Wihongi has been in US detention since the start of April. Photo: Supplied A New Zealand woman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-402643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}