HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – For nearly 40 decades, citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau have been free to live and work legally in the U.S. under the Compacts of Free Association (COFA). In exchange, the U.S. military has unlimited access to the 2-million square-mile region.

COFA migrants were initially given federal benefits as reparations for nuclear testing, but a law in 1996 stripped them of their eligibility for programs like Medicaid, SNAP and financial assistance — even though they pay taxes.

“When they come to Hawaii they’re often seeking medical care because the amount of trauma that has been inflicted, not only on their their communities, but on their environment and their ability to survive in a healthy way in their environment, by the United States, is severe,” said immigrant advocate Rebecca Soon.

The state and nonprofits stepped up to fill the gap. About 25,000 COFA migrants live in Hawaii — the most of any state. Many work in the hospitality industry and drive Hawaii’s tourism economy.

Waipahu Safe Haven began as a computer lab for youth and now helps immigrants of all backgrounds access resources from legal advice to healthcare, critical during the pandemic and after the Maui fires.

“They wouldn’t go to the doctor because they didn’t want to make a bill. They didn’t. They would end up in the emergency room and want to know, how can we pay the bill when we didn’t have enough coverage,” said Barbara Tom, a public health nurse and founder-director of Waipahu Safe Haven.

This year, a new law makes COFA migrants eligible for federal services again — and Tom and other advocates are reaching out and enrolling them, though it’ll take time to rebuild trust and systems for enrollment.

On Sept. 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Waipahu Safe Haven is hosting a COFA Fair at Waipahu Intermediate School with language access services. Volunteers will provide information on SNAP, health enrollment, COFA veterans information. free phone program, consulate offices to address passport and I-94 issues. Those who were initially denied federal aid services after March 9, 2024, can appeal.

Meltina Kibby is a language interpreter and works to empower COFA migrants.

She fights for those who experience discrimination in the workplace, housing or any situation — something she felt when she left Kosrae in 2013.

“My son was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. I got him over to Hawaii, and he’s still under group care, and he’s now at Kulana Malama,” Kibby said. “I was homesick, I was shut in my door, and I was like crying out.”

“We were called cockroaches, and what I said, we’re not cockroaches. We’re human beings,” she recalled. “I see a lot of change, and I don’t hear that word anymore.”

Soon says she too has seen racism against COFA migrants and urges people to remember what all Pacific islanders have in common.

“There is a lot of shared experience that we have, in discrimination, in colonization, in historical trauma, and those those systems are all really good at pitting people who are struggling with identity within those systems against one another, instead of seeing that the overall issue is the system,” Soon said.

“If every single person were to just pause, and we were to do a little bit of a like mo’oku’auhau of our own ohana, we would be reminded of our own immigrant roots.”

Watch more episodes of HNN’s series “Immigration in Hawaii.”

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