detained earlier this month<\/a> when returning from a holiday in New Zealand.<\/p>\nCourt documents show Everlee Wihongi was found guilty of possession of THC in Wisconsin in 2014.<\/p>\n
But her mother, Betty Wihongi, said Everlee had travelled in and out of the country several times on her green card without ever being asked to declare her convictions.<\/p>\n
“I’m just assuming that he’s saying that she had to declare it on entry into the US. As a green card holder there’s none of that. You would just go in. I don’t know what he’s talking about.”<\/p>\n
She said Peters should spend more time talking to staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to try and help her daughter, instead of commenting about her daughter’s situation.<\/p>\n
Her daughter had had to apply to renew her green card, which included a thorough background check, and the conviction was not a problem, she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Caucus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPGNRW_Winston_Peters_1_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
Peters said he had nothing to add about Betty Wihongi’s comments, but that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was providing consular support to Everlee Wihongi.<\/p>\n
He said for privacy reasons he was unable to comment further on the details of the case.<\/p>\n
Betty Wihongi said her daughter’s court date had been set to 10 June, and Everlee was “very anxious” about what would happen.<\/p>\n
“It’s demoralising being where she is and I think it’s hard for everyone in there.”<\/p>\n
Applicants advised to be upfront<\/p>\n
A consultant who helps New Zealanders with US visa processes says New Zealanders a US green card should be upfront about any previous convictions when entering the US.<\/p>\n
Kevin Park, who runs Concord Visa’s New Zealand branch, said a green card is not a passport and does not mean guaranteed rights to re-enter the US each time.<\/p>\n
![\"Kevin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPE1Z2_Kevin_Park_jfif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nKevin Park runs Concord Visa’s New Zealand branch.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
He said New Zealanders with a US green card who had prior convictions should seek advice before they travel out, on what re-entering could look like.<\/p>\n
Park said what New Zealanders may consider as small charges – such as possession of marijuna – could be taken seriously.<\/p>\n
He said it was difficult to say what could happen to Wihongi without knowing all the facts, but he said any false declaration at the border would not have helped.<\/p>\n
“The fact that there could be … a lie – a tick box that said no criminal convictions – that could be a worse outcome, and it could’ve been a different result if they declared early on this, and dealt with it head on, so I think it’s probably not going to be helping this case at all if indeed she wrote no,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said previous convictions were also getting picked up earlier with anyone applying for the Approved Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA).<\/p>\n
Any declarations of previous convictions in the ESTA process could lead to a denial of entry, or a request for an interview, Park said.<\/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":"Kiwi Everlee Wihongi has lived in the United States for more than 25 years and is now in…\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-404225","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\/404225","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=404225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404225\/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=404225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kiwi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPG6TW_Mata_with_Mihi_Everlee_Full_EP_00_03_08_15_Still001_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n