Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Hawaii

[MarkD]

>But what does Abraham get? 12 months of all expenses paid free housing on the taxpayer dime,

We'd love to send Abraham to  the coffee farms to pick berries, but liberals oppose prisoners being put to work.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

liberals oppose prisoners being put to work.

I know MCCC on Maui had a program where prisoners could do piecework sewing leis for something like $1 an hour.  Cigarette money.  The prisoners also worked in the kitchen making meals for the other inmates.  It was a plum job, one they all tried to get.  Not sure about other local jails.  But, no, don’t think there are any Hawaiian chain gangs or quarry rock bustings, which is generally what liberals oppose.

[loffelkopffl]

sometimes it's unbelievable the stupid crap people post i.e. liberals oppose putting prisoners to work

[My 2 cents]

Could they be picking coffee?

[ironyak]

Broad generalizations about any group are bound to be an oversimplification and inaccurate, especially statements made from individuals outside that group. It's akin to thinking everyone that speaks a certain language or has a particular skin color must be a criminal worth rounding up - stupid is as stupid does, from the ICE raids in Kona to some Supreme Court Justices' rulings in D.C.

As for a critique of forced labor for the incarcerated in the U.S., the documentary "13th" is worth the time - and it's available for free, which will help offset the higher costs from the reduced harvest of the local Hawai'i coffee you can drink while watching.

[Obie]

It looks like if you do it all legally, you don't have a problem with ICE.

"Several coffee farms reported not seeing any impacts on their workers, including Tom Greenwell, who owns and operates Greenwell Farms.

Greenwell said he hasn’t had any problems with immigration noting he always hires legally through the federal government’s H-2A program, where foreign nationals are granted visas to the United States to fill temporary, seasonal agricultural jobs.

“I have 40 pickers through the H2-A program and some domestics,” Greenwell said."

[kalakoa]

ICE arrests citizens too, but it's "not a problem" because they are usually released several hours later with pending Federal charges.

[ironyak]

Obie - It looks like if you do it all legally, you don't have a problem with ICE.
That's some impressive cherry picking - should get out in the fields and put those skills to work! Or could try instead to not create broad generalizations from individual examples - because, again, SIASD. As a counterpoint from the same article:

https://bigislandnow.com/2025/11/03/busi...fee-farms/
"Armando Rodriguez, owner of Aloha Star Coffee Farm in Kailua-Kona, said he lost between 20% and 30% of his crop this year.

“There wasn’t enough (pickers) to go around,” Rodriguez said. “If you don’t get it in time, the cherries dry on the plant and fall.”
...
Usually, Rodriguez said, his farm gets extra help from the mainland during picking season. However, a couple with green cards (official U.S. documents that prove they can legally work in the country) who come annually to work on the farm did not this year because they were afraid of being detained at the airport."

kalakoa - ICE arrests citizens too...
Only those of a "swarthy" complexion though so that's totally fine as it passes the U.S. "History and Traditions" legal test. Just the sort of harassment some folks never need to worry about experiencing so things are working as many desired, voted-for, and intended.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

those of a "swarthy" complexion

Which often are coffee pickers on Big Island, often Latino farm workers from Honduras. 

ICE agents now have the legal cover to stop, question, and detain people based on appearance, language, accent, workplace, or any other marker that “looks suspicious” to them. In other words, the Court just gave its blessing to racial profiling on a massive scale—and they did it without a full briefing or hearing and without explaining their reasoning.

This is not just about undocumented immigrants. This is about every Latino in this country—citizen, resident, or otherwise—who now has to wonder if going to work, speaking Spanish, or standing outside a Home Depot makes them a target.

https://www.aclu-wi.org/news/scotus-just...-outraged/

Imagine you are a coffee picker who travels to Big Island for work.  You need to spend money on an airline ticket, turn down other work, go through TSA, and possibly get pulled aside “legally” because you look darker than “normal”.  You’re temporarily thrown in a detention camp until ICE sorts our that you are a legal citizen or a green card holder or in the H-2A program, but now you’ve missed your flight, and may or may not have money for another plane ticket.  And who wants to chance going through that a second time?  Because the next time ICE may shackle you, put you on a plane to who knows where, and the government will claim they have no ability to get you back.  You’re not a criminal, just a guy who wants a job most residents on Big Island won’t do.  Which is why coffee cherries are unpicked on Hawaii coffee trees.

[kalakoa]

Punchline: paying tariffs on coffee imported from Brazil and elsewhere. Because tariffs are going to result in onshoring.