It appears that at least some local farmers have been spared from federal immigration enforcement, including rapid policy changes over the last few days.
Agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have stepped up arrests of immigrant workers around the country to fulfill one of the president's campaign promises.
Over the last few months, raids and arrests have taken place in Hawaiʻi as well. Now, local farmers worry that their operations and workers will be impacted.
But local farms haven't been hit just yet — that appears to be the case at least for Kona coffee fields.
“I've seen nothing to show or even tell me that there's any policing or raiding, and nothing through the coconut wireless as of yet,” said Roger Kaiwi, a Kona coffee farmer and the president of the Kona Coffee Council. “Not to say that it's not gonna happen, but I've seen nothing … Each day I'm in probably four to five coffee farms — a couple hundred acres — and I've seen no sign of anything like that.”
One reason is that there isn't a lot of labor in local coffee fields right now. Coffee harvest season starts roughly in August and runs through March, so there hasn't been much to do on coffee fields.
“It's still very early in the season, so most of us are using little to no outside help,” Kaiwi said.
The relative absence of ICE has spared local coffee farmers from abrupt changes following President Donald Trump's recent back-and-forth on his immigration policies.
Following concerns from industry leaders and some in his own administration, the president said via social media last week that “changes are coming” to ICE enforcement. That followed an order to exempt hotel, restaurant and farm workers from immigration raids and arrests.
But today he backtracked again, with his administration saying that all undocumented immigrants could be targeted for arrest and deportation.
