On the fog-waved slopes of Mauna Loa, where the earth is rich in volcanic memory and the pacific shine in the distance, a coveted coffee-kona is taken from the ground.
Fed by the island of Hawaii’s unique mixing of abundant sunshine, afternoon rain and lava infused soil, Kona Coffee is more than $ 30 for an eight-essence bag. With a dedicated supporters around the world, the different coffee has been a point of pride for the big island, and for the thousands of immigrants from Latin -America who have chosen the beans in the Kona fields for decades.
Now the fate of many of those immigrants is uncertain, just like the future of the coffee industry of the island.
The immigration content of the Trump government has achieved this, a remote, rough island, a 45-minute flight from Honolulu.
Federal agents have flown several times since February, most recently last week, who often last for days while they search for immigrants without papers among 200,000 people who live on the island.
In comparison with many published operations in large cities such as Denver and Los Angeles, the actions on the island are relatively small, with only a few dozen people who are known to have been taken in custody by immigration and customs enforcement.
But ICE enforcement actions have sent waves of fear on the rural island and underline how the immigration dragnet has been expanded and sweep in men and women without criminal records, as well as children.
“Regardless of the number of detained people, the result is huge,” says Jeanne Kapela, a democrat that represents the area in the state legislator.
Kona’s coffee industry consists of hundreds of family orchards, usually three to five hectares, and their immigrant workers often come from families with mixed status, with some members who can become naturalized citizens or green cardholders and others who have no papers.
“The future of coffee farmers and these employees are tied together, whether we like it or not,” said Mrs. Kapela, whose family coffee grows.
The industry is vital for her voters, she said. “If it dies, I don’t know how we get back.”
The immigrant community has become increasingly uncomfortable. In March, a wide -shared video showed agents who led a woman and three children away from their house. The following month a boy was brought in the first class in the class after his father was held.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security, said in an e -mail that agents had “a number of targeted enforcement actions” to arrest criminals on the big island. Moreover, she said, “Non-oriented illegal alien beings were found and held.” She did not respond to a question about how many immigrants were taken into custody.
Bruce Cornwell, 72, who grows and processes his coffee and that of other farmers for the American and international markets, said: “These are good, hard workers. They are not gang members.”
In contrast to industrial farms, small -scale coffee growers cannot easily use the seasonal visa program of the government, which is complex, expensive and requires extensive paperwork.
Mr. Cornwell said that employees must be offered paths to legally immigrate, instead of being completed.
“If we don’t have these immigrants, our coffee will hurt,” he said, near his orchard, where coffee -cherry matures. “The government should make it easier for these people to get and work here.”
Hawaii is the only American state with considerable commercial coffee production, led by the Big Island, where coffee growing began in the 1820s. In 1873, Henry Nicholas Greenwell, an English immigrant who settled on the island and whose offspring still won coffee, won Kona to the World’s Fair.
In the early 1900s, Japanese employees escaped harsh conditions on the Sugar Cane plantations of Hawaii, leasing small plots to grow coffee.
In the mid-1980s, Kona cultivation, the global embrace of special coffee. Since then, thousands of Mexican and Central American employees have migrated to the big island, And some have become growers themselves.
Among them are Mexican Americans such as Armando Rodriguez, whose family crossed the border to the United States illegal when he was 8 years old. He obtained a green card by his father, whose status was legalized in 1986 under the most recent amnesty for immigrants without papers, and later became a citizen.
Today his extensive family and Mills Coffee is growing on 13 hectares. They ship their award -winning coffee, Aloha Star, throughout the country.
Mr. Rodriguez is worried about the harvest, he said. Employees he normally hires for the season have informed him and other growers that they will not return from mainland the United States, even though they are green cardholders.
‘They are afraid that they will be held at the airport, or their green card will be removed, “Mr. Rodriguez said, drove past the Mamalahoa Highway, a narrow, winding coastal road with a turn on both sides that lead to dozens of coffee farms.
On a recent morning, employees moved past a row of baby coffee plants on the three-hectare farm of Don Davis, a retired naval pilot who flew to Delta Air Lines.
The workers are on their feet 11 hours a day, Mr Davis said, who pays them $ 30 per hour. He had just hung up a plate ‘no trasassing’ board on his gate in the hope of scare Ice Agents to enter his property. He said he was worried about his employees, even though they had the legal status.
“There is no one else who will choose this,” Mr Davis said about his crop.
During a lunch break, Salvador Cancino, 47, who dedicated his working life to coffee, said that he and others in his extensive Mexican family were long on the island. They have green cards and American civilian children and own their homes.
But he said that younger immigrants without papers had arrived in recent years to replace aging pickers. Many of the newcomers are Hondurans who grew coffee in their home country, for years is plagued by one of the world’s highest murder figures.
Several of those employees have fired a bag of 100 pounds in a mill on a recent Sunday.
“There is a lot of work here, and you can make good money,” said Darwin, 26, who arrived in the country four years ago and who spoke about the condition that he would only be identified by his first name because of his immigration status.
He said he earned $ 400 a day with working on the harvest and let his wife accompany him in Hawaii.
She gave birth to a newborn in March, and days later, when others who were living in the same house saw an SUV approaching. She said she had locked herself and the baby in the bedroom with the curtains pulled. Agents hit the front door for a while and then left when nobody responded.
Since then the couple or it remains. “We have been happy here, but the immigration situation is now very worried,” said Darwin.
It was in March that Mrs. Kapela, the state legislator, received hectic calls from teachers and others about “the chaos that had arisen” through enforcement actions, she remembered. Children had disappeared from classrooms, she said, and frightened families were hidden or slept in their cars.
“Nobody knew what to do,” said Mrs. Kapela.
There are no immigration lawyers who practice on the island, and immigrants who have hearings must fly to Honolulu, where immigration procedures are held. Missing a hearing can lead to a deportation warrant from a judge, which means that the immigrants for enforcement goals.
At the beginning of April, ICE agents returned to Kona.
John Saving, who grows certified organic coffee, left one day to do your shopping and did not close the gate behind him. When he returned, a neighbor told him that federal agents had been on his property for the Mamalahoa Highway.
There were no workers on his country when the agents were on his farm, said Mr. Saven, but he was furious. On April 5, he joined a protest and waved a plate with the text: “Ice invaded my farm.”
A community meeting was held on April 29 at primary school where the first class, which came from Honduras, was removed and deported. During the meeting, Mr. Rodriguez, the coffee farmer and founder of Aloha Latinos, helped a non -profit, or local police officers federal agents.
The police chief of the island, Benjamin Moszkowicz, replied that his department “not, not and will not perform immigration enforcement”, of which he said it is a federal issue. He received the applause of the excitement.
Gollita Reyes, who makes Tamales for mini markets that focus on immigrants, said that orders for her tamales had plummeted with every enforcement action.
“People miss work because they are afraid and have no more money,” said Mrs. Reyes. “Others are gone.”
Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
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