Federal Detention Center Honolulu - 6
Image Courtesy of Immigration Law & Justice Network
Immigration Law and Justice Network | Sept. 8, 2025
The Legal Clinic, our ILJ Affiliate serving Hawaiʻi, provides legal counsel and representation to detained immigrants far from home.
4,862 miles from Miami
Juan, a Venezuelan national living in Miami, had never been in trouble before. He had never been charged with a crime. He was a student with a lawful student visa. But tuition was so expensive that he’d been forced to drop out of college temporarily.
On the day the police stopped him for allegedly speeding, his lapsed enrollment was enough of a reason for ICE to take him away and initiate removal proceedings. This was the beginning of Juan’s long and bizarre journey that would eventually lead him to Neribel Chandon, Senior Staff Attorney for ILJ affiliate The Legal Clinic (TLC), our ILJ affiliate located in Honolulu.
“He was first sent to two different facilities in Florida,” recounts Neribel. “And then to Louisiana, then California, then back to Louisiana, then back to California, and then finally to Hawaiʻi.”
Worse, she continues, is that Juan was held for five weeks and never served with an NTA (Notice to Appear charging document, required to begin deportation proceedings) during that entire time. He did not receive his NTA until he and Neribel were before the judge at his initial hearing in Immigration Court.
“It was,” states Neribel, “a violation of his due process rights.”
The Federal Detention Center in Honolulu
Juan was not the first in the recent wave of immigrant detainees sent from the U.S. mainland to Honolulu, nor was he the first to receive legal assistance from TLC.
That came earlier this past May, when Neribel received a request from a worried family. The father was being held at the Federal Detention Center (FDC) in Honolulu, and they could not reach him. Could someone please check to make sure he was okay? He’d been taken so quickly from their home in California. Could someone please find out if he had his medications with him?
Neribel was initially surprised. As one of the few nonprofit attorneys in Honolulu willing and able to take on removal cases, she frequently counseled and represented immigrant detainees at the FDC. But they were rarely ever transferred from another state to Hawaiʻi.
Promising to get back to the family once she had some answers for them, Neribel discovered that the father had not arrived alone. There were 10 other immigrant detainees sent with him, all from Bakersfield, California.
In the months ahead, Neribel and her team would meet weekly with detained immigrants from the mainland. These were fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters who had been bounced from one facility to another—just like Juan—crisscrossing the country and taking them farther and farther from their homes, families, and communities.
Why is ICE moving immigrant detainees from the Mainland to Hawaiʻi?
Federal Detection Centers
Map by Laura Sonnenmark/Immigration Law & Justice Network
In February 2025, Honolulu’s federal detention center (FDC) became one of nine facilities managed by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to reserve space for ICE detainees.
Traveling from the mainland can easily take more than 24 hours; flights are often expensive and inconvenient. So why choose to bring detainees here?
“The FDC here has capacity for 950 people,” answers Neribel, “but the average number of detainees is only about 350.”
Hawaiʻi’s low federal crime rate means there are a lot of extra beds for ICE detainees in Honolulu, and ICE needs beds to continue its single-minded deportation agenda. As of August 24, a staggering 61,226 immigrants—widely believed to be the highest number in U.S. history—are being held in ICE-designated facilities throughout the country. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s incessant pressure to arrest more, detain more, and deport more immigrants shows no sign of declining.
Besides the issue of space, the FDC in Honolulu has something else that other mainland facilities lack: the isolation of an island located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Thousands of miles away from family and community, thousands of miles away from a detainee’s attorney, with limited access or hope of finding legal services.
The need for legal counsel
For the detainees in Hawaiʻi who do have attorneys back on the mainland, it is often difficult for them to connect with each other – especially considering the time difference – for upcoming court hearings or other urgent issues. In Neribel’s experience and based on her conversations with FDC staff, remote video meetings for legal services are not easily accessible. FDC claims they do not have adequate infrastructure for them, although they were able to provide them during the pandemic. Phone calls between attorneys and clients are an available option, but they are by appointment only and must be recorded by officials, making these critical communications problematic.
For detainees searching for legal counsel locally, the bigger problem is how few nonprofit immigration attorneys are providing services in Honolulu for those detainees facing deportation.
“There are only five nonprofit organizations and fewer than 10 nonprofit attorneys taking on removal defense cases, even fewer taking on legal representation for detainees,” explains Neribel. “Three of those attorneys are from The Legal Clinic.”
Full representation for these clients falls mostly on Neribel and her staff.
Waiting in prison
The FDC is a federal prison, and virtually none of TLC’s clients — from either Hawaiʻi or the mainland — have ever experienced prison incarceration before. They live side by side with the other inmates and regularly deal with intimidation and occasional violence. They are also subject to the same harsh rules, including the required all-cavities search before and after Neribel’s visits.
“It’s very traumatic for them,” she explains, “and for cultural reasons, they really do not want to talk about it with me. It’s that they feel ashamed to be there.”
Juan’s Story
Neribel and her team work together to identify clients who are eligible to apply for asylum, SIJS (Special Immigrant Juvenile Status), or other forms of immigration relief to keep them in the United States. Unfortunately, for many of the detainees, there is no viable option for them, and they are forced to accept voluntary departure to avoid the harsher penalties associated with deportation.
“TLC has been the answer to my prayers,” says Senior Staff Attorney Neribel Chandon of her work with immigrants in Hawaiʻi. (Photo Courtesy of Immigration Law & Justice Network)
This was the case for Juan. He chose voluntary departure in hopes that he would be able to return to the United States sometime in the future to complete his studies. Neribel worked to ensure he wasn’t sent back to his home country of Venezuela, but to his family residing in Mexico.
“TLC has been the answer to my prayers,” says Senior Staff Attorney Neribel Chandon of her work with immigrants in Hawaiʻi.
“This was an additional challenge,” says Neribel, “which required obtaining support from the Mexican government. It also meant that Juan was forced to remain incarcerated while waiting for the final decision.”
On the day we interviewed Neribel, Juan was on a plane crossing the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Neribel had asked him to let her know as soon as he had safely landed.
Instead, she received an email from his mother. “It is because of you that my child is safe and with me,” it read. “We will never forget your kindness. Thank you, thank you, with all my heart.”
Immigration Law and Justice Network is an independent organization that receives support from the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church. United Methodists serve on its board of directors.