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An undocumented immigrant was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week in Lahaina, according to a local immigration advocate. She says that’s sending fear through the community and raising concerns that undocumented people will stop asking for government assistance while they’re still trying to recover from last year’s wildfires. 

“The most important thing is the shock waves that emanate in the aftermath of the community learning that they (ICE) were there,” said Veronica Mendoza Jachowski, co-founder and executive director of Maui Roots Reborn, an organization of case managers and attorneys working with Maui’s immigrant community. “I’m worried about what that does to the relationships and the bridges that we’ve been working so hard to build between them and the organizations, institutions and government that is there to provide support for them.” 

Jachowski said the person detained is a client of Roots Reborn, but she declined to release any other information about the person or their case. 

She said she is only aware of the one detention so far, but the ripple effect has been noticeable. When she and other advocates tried to check on community members Wednesday in places where they normally gather and hang out, no one was around, she said. 

“It was a ghost town,” she said. “We did reach out to our clients via text, and we had over 100 texts come in. It’s really scary.” 

ICE did not respond to a message left at its Honolulu office or emails sent to its public affairs department. 

Merin Mendoza, of Chiapas, Mexico, who escaped the blaze last year with his wife, Yesenia, said he received the warning text from Roots Reborn and said many community members are afraid. 

“The truth is, nobody wants to go out right now,” he said in Spanish. “They don’t even want to go to Walmart.” 

Fire survivors are still struggling to get by with a lack of job opportunities and rising rent prices, he said. The news of ICE’s presence felt like another gut punch.

“It’s so bad we got hit with the fire and now immigration,” he said. 

Maui County Council member Tamara Paltin, who represents West Maui, said during a meeting after the incident that the presence of immigration agents was traumatizing fire survivors who are still recovering. 

The Lahaina fires on Aug. 8, 2023, killed 102 people and destroyed more than 2,200 buildings. Before the fires, about a third of Lahaina’s residents were foreign born and about 28% of the town spoke a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

“This is an unacceptable attack on our community and the concerted efforts between government and community organizations to carefully build with immigrant fire survivors,” she said.

Roots Reborn began tracking data in April and found that of 894 people who completed intakes with the organization, . Nearly 80% of people served by the organization are Spanish speakers. Of those served, 344 reported their homes were destroyed, damaged or inaccessible, 249 said they’d lost their job and 136 were experiencing reduced hours or income.

After the fires, immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, faced additional barriers to accessing aid, such as lost documents, passports and green cards. Many people for whom English is not their first language experienced delays in receiving assistance because of a lack of interpreters available in the fire’s immediate aftermath.

But the main hurdle, advocates said, was fear and mistrust of government agencies, particularly FEMA, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security. Even though government officials repeatedly assured them that FEMA never uses information it gets from applicants for immigration enforcement, many people were still suspicious.

News of this detention will drive more people away from seeking resources, even those that have nothing to do with the federal government, Jachowski said.

It could even reduce attendance at community events and resource fairs, she said.

“This single handedly is going to without a doubt impact that,” she said. “Our community does not really know the nuances of government structures. It is complicated.”

Ruben Juarez, director of the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study, which is led by the University of Hawaii to study health and social impacts of the wildfires, said the group had less attendance than expected at a wellness fair hosted on Saturday to share the results of a health study that measured heavy metal levels in the blood of fire survivors. The free event was held at the University of Hawaii Maui College on the great lawn.

Juarez said of 1,100 children and adults who registered for the event in advance, only 800 attended. Around 200 more people attended as walk-ins.

But only 13% of attendees were Hispanic, even though 22% of those who registered in advance were Hispanic, he said.

“From speaking with our community partners onsite, they mentioned that several of their invitees didn’t come due to fears,” he said. “It’s unfortunate because I emphasized that UH is a sanctuary area, protected from detentions, but I guess the fear still lingers.”

Civil Beat reporter Léo Azambuja contributed to this story.