U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda shares inside look on immigrants held behind bars
By Ashley Mizuo
April 13, 2026 at 1:00 PM HST
With the rise of immigration raids under the Trump administration, more and more immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been held at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center.
While it's difficult to acquire information on what happens inside the facility, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda made her fourth visit to find out more about who’s been detained and why.
Tokuda was able to speak directly to detainees with the aid of a translator. She said that while they hail from places in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America, the vast majority of them built lives in Hawaiʻi prior to being detained. Immigrant detainees are also now being held separately from the general inmate population.
Interview Highlights
On the people being detained
REP. JILL TOKUDA: You have folks from everywhere. You have folks from the U.K. and Ireland and Russia. You have folks from, you know, Micronesia. You have folks from China, Vietnam that I've seen today, you have folks from Venezuela, Mexico as well. It runs the gamut in terms of individuals where they came from. One consistent thing is for a vast majority of the folks that I've talked to, they had a life here in Hawaiʻi. They were working. They were contributing to society. They're a part of churches. They were a part of schools. Many of them have families that are still here, children that are United States citizens, spouses that are waiting for them. And so it's lives disrupted. And if you ask me, are these the worst of the worst, the absolute criminals that we've heard the Trump administration talk about wanting to get out of our society? That is not what I'm seeing here.
On the facility conditions
TOKUDA: Because the ‘Big Ugly Bill’ gave ICE, CBP such a flush of money as we know, over a billion dollars, they were able to create separate units so that there's now separate female and male wards for ICE detainees, specifically. Whereas when I first started coming here, they were mixed with federal criminals here, so that was not a good situation at all.
The Honolulu Federal Detention Center. (960x475, AR: 2.0210526315789474)
... The conditions, compared to a lot of other places across the continent, are good in the sense that they're air conditioned. Each person has an individual cell to themselves. You know, they've got hot food. What I will say is this — you really, when you spend time in there, you realize there's no daylight. There's small windows. You can't see outside. I couldn't tell you if it was pouring rain outside or a bright, sunny day sometimes. And so the fact that you don't have fresh air, that you do have exercise rooms that are available to them, which is great, but you're looking at light through barred windows. So there's an emotional, mental factor involved in that. What's really difficult too is just hearing the stories. There's a lot of mental anguish going on.
On her advocacy for detained immigrants
TOKUDA: I think the real goal is to try to be as humane as possible through what has really been an inhumane process of extraction, literally people ripped up from their doorsteps and their lives and their families and put in here with limited ability to communicate or contact. As I said, if you met and talked to some of these folks, chances are you've seen them before. They've served your food, they've cleaned your yard, they've built your walls, they've been in your churches with you. They went to school. Their kids went to school with your kids. I know there's this image of who these people are, but when I go in there, there are a lot of citizens, just regular people, that we're trying to do right in many cases, we're working through that legal pathway.
Tokuda encourages those with loved ones in ICE detention or those who need immigration help to contact her office. More information can be found at tokuda.house.gov.
This story aired on The Conversation on April 13, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
While it's difficult to acquire information on what happens inside the facility, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda made her fourth visit to find out more about who’s been detained and why.
Tokuda was able to speak directly to detainees with the aid of a translator. She said that while they hail from places in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America, the vast majority of them built lives in Hawaiʻi prior to being detained. Immigrant detainees are also now being held separately from the general inmate population.
Interview Highlights
On the people being detained
REP. JILL TOKUDA: You have folks from everywhere. You have folks from the U.K. and Ireland and Russia. You have folks from, you know, Micronesia. You have folks from China, Vietnam that I've seen today, you have folks from Venezuela, Mexico as well. It runs the gamut in terms of individuals where they came from. One consistent thing is for a vast majority of the folks that I've talked to, they had a life here in Hawaiʻi. They were working. They were contributing to society. They're a part of churches. They were a part of schools. Many of them have families that are still here, children that are United States citizens, spouses that are waiting for them. And so it's lives disrupted. And if you ask me, are these the worst of the worst, the absolute criminals that we've heard the Trump administration talk about wanting to get out of our society? That is not what I'm seeing here.
On the facility conditions
TOKUDA: Because the ‘Big Ugly Bill’ gave ICE, CBP such a flush of money as we know, over a billion dollars, they were able to create separate units so that there's now separate female and male wards for ICE detainees, specifically. Whereas when I first started coming here, they were mixed with federal criminals here, so that was not a good situation at all.
The Honolulu Federal Detention Center. (960x475, AR: 2.0210526315789474)
... The conditions, compared to a lot of other places across the continent, are good in the sense that they're air conditioned. Each person has an individual cell to themselves. You know, they've got hot food. What I will say is this — you really, when you spend time in there, you realize there's no daylight. There's small windows. You can't see outside. I couldn't tell you if it was pouring rain outside or a bright, sunny day sometimes. And so the fact that you don't have fresh air, that you do have exercise rooms that are available to them, which is great, but you're looking at light through barred windows. So there's an emotional, mental factor involved in that. What's really difficult too is just hearing the stories. There's a lot of mental anguish going on.
On her advocacy for detained immigrants
TOKUDA: I think the real goal is to try to be as humane as possible through what has really been an inhumane process of extraction, literally people ripped up from their doorsteps and their lives and their families and put in here with limited ability to communicate or contact. As I said, if you met and talked to some of these folks, chances are you've seen them before. They've served your food, they've cleaned your yard, they've built your walls, they've been in your churches with you. They went to school. Their kids went to school with your kids. I know there's this image of who these people are, but when I go in there, there are a lot of citizens, just regular people, that we're trying to do right in many cases, we're working through that legal pathway.
Tokuda encourages those with loved ones in ICE detention or those who need immigration help to contact her office. More information can be found at tokuda.house.gov.
This story aired on The Conversation on April 13, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.