Raids by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations were carried out across Kauaʻi last Wednesday. County Councilmember Fern Holland was on the scene at 4 a.m. when law enforcement showed up at one house because she happened to live across the street.
She spoke with the Conversation about what she saw and provided details that she’s gathered in the days since.
Interview highlights
On waking up to an immigration raid
FERN HOLLAND: So Wednesday morning, about 3:45, I thought I heard some sort of low plane or helicopter, and that kind of woke me up. And as I was trying to go back to bed, the dogs next door really started barking a lot, and I looked out the louvers and saw a bunch of people walking in the street. And so I got up, I threw my dress on, and walked out in the carport. And as I walked into the carport in the driveway, I realized that these were armed officers, and there was a bunch of them, maybe a couple dozen, maybe up to 30 people total that were present. And then they walked onto the property across from my house and surrounded the house, and then a bunch of vehicles pulled up, and they opened up the loudspeaker and started reciting over and over, the address of the property, and then just saying, "Federal warrant. Come out with your hands up. Executing federal warrant." And they kept saying that over and over, and then they did it in Spanish for a long time as well. … I pretty much immediately introduced myself as a local county council member, and I'm just going to be standing here and observing. I was in the street from 4 a.m. till about 12 noon that day.
On what she observed
HOLLAND: I basically heard them kind of saying some stuff back and forth. They bring out one person, and they'd be like, "Oh, this person's Filipino speaks English." And then they would interview each person, and it looked like they let go about half of the people that they interviewed. I think about half were in the correct status, or they obviously weren't who they were looking for. And then there were others that they loaded up into these 15-passenger vans. And I think they ended up taking about 15 people off in the end, but some refused to come out. So after the initial couple waves, one of the officers said, "You're going to hear a loud explosion." And then, a moment later, there was a very loud explosion. And then, about 15 minutes or so later, there was a second one. And I think those were flash grenades. Those were because certain people were barricaded inside.
On community concerns
HOLLAND: I think the community has more questions than answers right now because the statement that was released by the federal agencies was pretty short and didn't really have a lot of information in it. They said that 44 people were arrested, two of them may be suspected [of being] associated with that Venezuelan gang. … And so one of the things I've been the most concerned about through all this is just how rapid rumors were spreading and how quickly people were spreading fear through the community. … There's still rumors that a lot of places that were also raided, that were not raided. I've confirmed that no restaurants were raided in this. This was a very targeted operation, it appears, and all of the properties are owned by the same property owner, and all of the people arrested work for the same employment services company. And so we're piecing that together as a community. And as people start to ask questions and investigate, that looks like this is all associated with a single individual employment service and person, and it's not random sweeps, or even a collection of sweeps of just different people that they have.
On the raid being conducted at the federal level
HOLLAND: I communicated pretty quickly earlier in the week, before the raids had happened, with our chief of police, and asked about the presence of the federal vehicles and the rumor that ICE was on island. Because our community, word spreads really fast, and within about an hour of those vehicles being on the docks, there were people were calling me, and people were concerned. And so as a councilmember, there's not really a lot that I can do, and I don't really have any authority to demand questions or answers from the federal government, but I can, within our council capacity, look at the county and what is the county doing, and are we playing a role in this? Our chief of police was not aware of the vehicles arriving. Our [Kauaʻi police] officers were not included in this operation, and so our local police department really didn't have a role to play in this. This was an inner federal operation of many different agencies, law enforcement working together, but our local police department was not involved in that, and our mayor was not notified, and our council — we were not notified.
On navigating recent criticism
HOLLAND: It's been very difficult to try to navigate this over the last few days as a councilmember. It just so happens that one of these five houses is immediately across the street from where I've lived for over a decade. And it's been interesting. I've received a lot of criticisms on both sides of politics, people thinking that I was supposed to walk out into the street and stop some SWAT of 40 armed officers with a federal warrant to clear out the house across the street, and then other people that are really offended and feel like I've been protecting and defending people that are illegally here, and it's just a really politicized issue right now. … If only two of those people were maybe suspected to have those associations, then a lot of those people might be victims of trafficking, which is also very concerning to me. So I want to make sure all those people get due process. And I want to make sure that our rights and the liberties that this country was founded on are respected all the way through the process, and that those people are treated humanely and have dignity in the way that their case is presented, get the opportunity for a fair trial and whatever they're entitled to. And at the same time, I want our law enforcement to ensure that we are taking criminals and potential gang associates out of our community.
This story aired on The Conversation on Nov. 10, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
