Source: Radio New Zealand (world)
Everlee Wihongi Photo: Supplied The lawyer acting for Everlee Wihongi says she is disappointed and sad after a hearing to allow her to argue for her release from immigration detention in the US has been postponed to next week.
Wihongi was detained by ICE while attempting to return to the US on a Green Card – or Permanent Resident Card – after a three-week holiday in New Zealand in early April. She is a New Zealand citizen, but has lived in the US for decades.
Wihongi’s lawyer, Marc Christopher said problems connecting a Zoom call to the court prevented her from testifying and she will remain in custody for at least another week until a rescheduled hearing. “Five minutes before the hearing we were informed by the detention facility that their internet had gone out and they had no phone communication whatsoever. “This was after we were assured that they were going to be able to provide Zoom capabilities to the court.
The judge was very accommodating. [Wihongi] could have called just a basic number. The facility was unable to do that,” Christopher said.
He had been able to speak with Wihongi by Zoom on Thursday and she had also been able to call out to her mother’s phone during today’s hearing – on an inmate line that the court was unable to use. “A simple telephone call.
You’re telling me that she could not make a telephone call out of a major detention centre? It almost defies what is believable,” Christopher said.
He said the current detention facility where Wihongi was being held was better than her previous locations but conditions inside were still challenging. “She’s in a very large dorm room with 30-40 people in the dorm.
The food is very substandard – it’s normally a piece of bread and two pieces of lunch meat with milk or a coffee.
There’s very little opportunity for her to be outside or to have any type of recreation so it’s a very, very difficult existence while your in there.” Wihongi’s emotional state in detention went “back and forth”. “There are moments when she’s guardedly optimistic but after speaking to her today – after the hearing – you can’t help but feel the disappointment and sadness in her voice knowing that she’s going to be in there for at least a couple more weeks,” Christopher said.
Earlier this month, he told RNZ Wihongi had been charged in relation to her conduct concerning a decade-old conviction for a felony offence of marijuana possession.
Christopher said he was arguing that Wihongi originally pleaded guilty to that charge on the basis of incorrect legal advice that her conviction would not affect her immigration status. “Under our constitution, if that happens, a person is able to then vacate their conviction. “If that conviction was vacated, the US would no longer have any legal basis to detain her, and she would be released “relatively soon after,” Christopher said.
He out that following Wihongi’s conviction the attorney behind the advice was “disbarred for a number of reasons, foremost for lying to his clients, for forging documents and forging court orders.” Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
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