Hi,

New Zealander Everlee Wihongi is still stuck in an ICE prison, after getting detained at LAX airport on April 10. She has been wearing her orange prison jumpsuit for nearly a month.

While her story is finally getting mainstream coverage in outlets like The Guardian, New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, has washed his hands of the entire thing. Peters’ main talking point is that Everlee apparently didn’t declare her prior conviction (weed, a decade ago), telling assembled reporters: 

“When the form asks you to do things, complete the form accurately.”

The thing is, as a Green Card holder there was no form for Everlee to fill out at immigration. It’s sort of impossible to complete the form accurately when the form does not exist. 

Webworm spoke to a US immigration attorney about this, who also indicated Peters was full of shit:

"It's not like there was a form that she could have completed inaccurately, because there is no specific form asking about recent arrests, charges or convictions.

There is no specific form for Lawful Permanent Residents [what Everlee is].

There is another form that visitors must fill out, but LPRs (like Everlee) or US citizens do not have to complete it.

So, in short, there is no requirement for a LPR to disclose a years old charge upon re-entry into the United States."

I pressed the immigration attorney further, as Winston Peters was so adamant about these "forms". I asked if there could be any other form involved, at any step in the process:

"No idea when she last renewed her Green Card, but Green Cards generally are valid for 10 years at a time. However, when you fill out an I-90 (the form to renew or replace a Green Card), if you take a look at it, there is also nowhere on the form that you have to disclose arrests, convictions, or charges."

She went on.

"Everlee should hopefully be released on bond by the next time we hear about her case. [That said] bond is being denied in 95% of the cases. I have a few clients at Adelanto right now as well.

They are just doing everything possible to make people just decide to go back to their home country instead of being detained indefinitely. But for many people who are detained, this is their home. And they are not criminals, that's just the messaging they want Americans to believe to be able to sleep at night about these detention centers."

Neither Winston Peters or Christopher Luxon have replied to Webworm's original enquiries last month.

With all this in mind, I wanted to share an essay from Everlee’s aunt, Jen Hewett-Sauauga.

Jen lives in New Zealand, and has been watching Everlee’s US imprisonment unfold with horror – along with the New Zealand government essentially extending Everlee the middle finger. 

Good People

by Jen Hewett-Sauauga

Good people – people who put family and love at the core of their values – have raised Everlee. 

Her dad Gordon is a man with humility, and a quiet inner strength. He hails from the Far North of Aotearoa, New Zealand and is of Nga Puhi descent. Nga Puhi is one of the iwi or tribes of the Maori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa. Everlee’s mother Betty is from the Cook Islands, born in Aitutaki and raised in Tokoroa, a town in the North Island of New Zealand. Betty is extroverted, kind and intelligent.

I am fortunate to have been embraced by the aroha (love) of the Wihongi whanau (family), being Betty’s sister. 

Everlee’s maternal line through Betty is from the Cook Islands. 

Then there’s the American side! Everlee’s great-great-grandfather was William Thomas Hewett, who came from Oregon. Her great-grandfather was Richard Louis Bixby, who came from New York state.

William Thomas Hewett was a merchant trader who sailed to the Pacific, settling on a beautiful island called Aitutaki. He met Rangiuru, and they had many children (this is where we got our European surname “Hewett” from!) 

One of William and Rangiuru’s children was Amelia May, Everlee’s great-grandmother. Everlee was named after her.

American military personnel were stationed in Aitutaki in WW2, because of the threat of Japanese invasion in the Pacific. When the Americans left Aitutaki, they also left numerous babies behind – and my grandmother Amelia May had one of these children. 

She’d formed a relationship with one of the Americans stationed on the island, Richard Louis Bixby. Everlee’s grandfather, Richard Louis Bixby Hewett, was born in October 1944 after his father had left Aitutaki. 

Richard’s daughter was Betty, Everlee’s mother.

Māori whakapapa to show the connections they have; to demonstrate a belonging to a people and a place. It also helps others know what the connections are. In the Cook Islands, it is called akapapa. 

When you break the word down, whaka/aka is a prefix meaning ‘to make’, and papa means succession or a basalt rock foundation. Your forebears are the foundation for your descendant’s, so it was important to know your history. The English translation is genealogy, which has lost the full rich and nuanced meaning of what whakapapa means. The people of the Pacific Islands can whakapapa to each other. Our oral histories and stories connect us as the water of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa (The Pacific Ocean) connects the islands of the Pacific.

Everlee can whakapapa to America. She is connected to America by blood that can be traced through the Hewett’s and the Bixby’s. The history of our family in America reaches back for many generations.  We have scientific evidence that backs up our family stories through DNA tests that link us to our American cousins.

However, our whakapapa and our DNA mean nothing when we are contending with western race based policy that de-legitimises our sense of connection and belonging. Everlee’s granddad Richard Hewett missed out on a connection with his biological father, the man that he was named after. Sadly, he died before a DNA test done by our younger sister Louise, helped us find our Bixby family. 

Dad died not meeting a family who would have welcomed him with open arms. During World War II there were laws in place which prohibited interracial marriage, and interracial fraternisation. Rigid laws didn’t stop human connection though, as evidenced by the babies that were born throughout the Pacific during American occupation. 

Right now, Everlee’s legitimacy is called into question. Despite holding a valid Green Card, she is in ICE detention. 

Her belonging in America comes from her parents who were handpicked to work in America in the 1990s. She has grown up in America, worked and paid taxes there. 

Her belonging also comes from her blood ties from her great-great-grandfather, and her great-grandfather. Why has that legitimacy been stripped away from her?  Is it because of a historical misdemeanour during her rebellious years? Is it because she has voiced her political views? or is it because the colour of her skin takes away her legitimacy? 

We as a whanau only have speculation and no answers – 27 days after ICE took her.

-Jen Hewett-Sauauga

David here again.

I'm incredibly grateful for Jen's insights into all of this. Also thanks to the immigration attorney that gave her time. Winston Peters – crickets.

If you're anything like me, and names and family trees tend to blur in your mind, here is my very crude scrawl that helped me make sense of it all:

One last thing I wanted to note: Thanks to rhetoric from politicians like Winston Peters – essentially blaming Everlee for all of this, and indicating the US is a sane system dealing with it all – there are a lot of people assuming the worst about Everlee.

There are incredibly racist elements in New Zealand. It's not just the United States. Jen told me she's been seeing horrible comments on social media, often posted under news stories about Everlee. She's grateful for the Webworm comments section. I told her when I posted about my stories on social media, I heavily moderated the comments. Racists (a lot of them) are blocked and banned.

Jen had this to say about it all:

"Thanks for the deletes and blocks on your posts. There are some shitty insignificant people hiding behind the safety of their screens.

I’ve had to tell my kids and my nieces and nephews to not read the comments because they were getting upset about what people were saying about their cousin and sister.

I want to protect them from the ugliness. The only way I can do that is to teach my kids to not be part of the ugliness.

And if you have to read a comment, pay attention to the good ones. Throw the rest away like the rubbish they are."

So thanks for being sane and kind, all of you. And thanks for reading this piece, and taking a continued interest in Everlee's story.

David.