ICE-led raids lead to arrests of 44 people on Kauaʻi

During raids early Wednesday morning, federal agents from eight agencies executed search warrants at residences and one business on Kauaʻi, leading to the arrests of 44 people, according to a post on the Kauaʻi County Facebook page.

Two people arrested were suspected associates of the Venezuelan terrorist organization Tren de Aragua.

Kauaʻi County said the information came from a notice from the federal government.

The agencies involved in the raids were Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement, ICE-Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigative Division, and other federal partners.

Kaua’i County Councilmember Fern Holland said in a Facebook video that some of the raids occurred on the street she lives on in Kapaʻa, starting around 4 a.m., with commotion and dogs barking, and lasting until a little past noon.

She said a bunch of cars pulled up to a house and immediately started saying over a megaphone loudspeaker: “Come out. … They repeated the street address over and over and then said Federal warrant, come out with your hands up. They did that for what felt like forever, but I think it was 10, 15, or 20 minutes, and then they also did it in Spanish.”

Holland said she lives in a very quiet area in Upper Kapahi.

“It’s a rural area, and so I could hear steps in the street,” she said. “So I walked outside, and I realized immediately that there was like an entire army of people. There was probably 20 or 30 agents walking up the street.”

Holland said she saw many people handcuffed and heard two explosions: “It sounded like somebody wasn’t coming out and they had to blow their way in.”

Holland said raids also occurred in Līhuʻe and Kalaheo.

Hawaiʻi News Now reported that the people arrested were flown by the Coast Guard to Oʻahu to the federal detention center.

Kauaʻi Police Department public information officer Tiana Victorino said; “Our office has also been informed that federal authorities conducted activities on the island earlier today. To clarify, KPD is not involved as this is a federal-led operation.”