HAWAII — It used to “not matter” that much, but thousands of eligible Filipinos in this state should settle their citizenship as soon as possible, a Fil-Am community leader said here amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

However, the call falls on the deaf ears of some Filipinos who are satisfied with just a green card.

To date, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has recorded a total of 27,320 Filipino green card holders in this state who are now eligible to become American citizens.

“There’s lot of eligible Filipinos for citizenship, but they haven’t applied,” Andrea Caymo-Kauhanen, executive director of the Filipino Community Center here, said in an interview this month with Filipino and Japanese reporters as part of a reporting tour organized by the US State Department.

But this could not be ruled out by unwillingness alone, as Caymo-Kauhanen noted that the citizenship application is expensive, and could easily rack up to thousands of dollars even without additional costs like lawyers, among other reasons.

“Some of them, you know, are not confident enough, so they’ll hire a lawyer, and that would like, double the price,” she noted. “So it’s cost-prohibitive, and sometimes it’s very, very cumbersome because you have to submit so [many] documents.”

Yet, nothing is more costly than peace of mind.

This developed as Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents have ramped up their operations against undocumented migrants in the state.

However, even those with legal papers are sometimes subjected to ICE detention, which advocates call unlawful.

Last May 6, ICE agents in Maui detained teachers of Filipino descent who are either US citizens or are in Hawaii legally through a J-1 visa, according to a joint statement of 28 organizations in this state, which includes the Filipino Community Center.

“This abuse of power by the federal government not only impacts teachers or members of the Filipino community,” their joint statement on May 22 said. “If left unchecked, these actions have a harmful effect on all professions, all groups, all ethnicities, all communities, all people.”

Armed ICE agents, they said, rushed through the teachers’ home and herded them onto the street. The teachers requested that they be allowed to show their passports and visa documents, which the federal agents denied. Instead, the teachers, along with their families and children, had been detained for nearly an hour.

Caymo-Kauhanen said the teachers were now in good condition.

“It’s just that the whole ordeal that they have to go through is traumatizing,” she said of the teachers.

While incidents like this sometimes occur even for those with legal documents, Caymo-Kauhanen said having an American citizenship would make it much less likely.

“Before, I guess the reason why they’re not applying is because it didn’t matter so much,” she said of eligible Filipinos. “You know, it’s not really that critical, but given the current political climate that we have right now, it’s safer for you to have that US passport.”

Despite the apparent advantages, there are Filipinos not eager to get US citizenship.

One of them is a 63-year-old man from Pangasinan, who works as a busboy in a mall here.

He is married to his Filipina wife, who is also an American citizen, and has been working in Hawaii for about two years.

When asked if he felt nervous amid recent incidents involving ICE agents, he said: “No, because our marriage is not fake.”

“As long as you are a green card holder with no case, you have no problem,” he added.

Nevertheless, he said he and his wife soon plan on retiring in the country while living off their pensions.

“At my age, after this, I’ll just return home,” he said, adding that he is aiming to finish the 10-year minimum requirement for Social Security retirement benefits like his wife, who is now eligible for a pension.

“If my body is still strong, I could finish the 10 years,” he said. “But if I could no longer do it, I’d just return to the Philippines — at least I would still take home some savings.” /atm

The Hawaii Department of Transportation has a draft plan to largely eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from ground, air and ocean transportation vehicles in the state by 2045.

HDOT Director Ed Sniffen shared highlights of the draft with a panel of state lawmakers Wednesday, drawing praise
and encouragement mixed with concerns over cost.

Implementing the plan will involve a big expense, which has yet to be estimated but is expected to add to what residents pay for fuel, groceries, airfare and other things.

Producing the plan by June 20 was required as part of a June 2024 settlement of a climate impact lawsuit filed against the state in 2022 by about a dozen Hawaii youth.

Isaac Moriwake, a local
attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice involved in the litigation, also participated in Wednesday’s presentation and called the settlement a “path-breaking” agreement to address the biggest sector in Hawaii’s economy adding climate-changing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

As part of the settlement, there will be court oversight and collaboration with a 20-member local youth
transportation council that includes five plaintiffs to help ensure HDOT reaches a target set by the Legislature in 2018 to achieve net-negative greenhouse gas emissions in Hawaii’s transportation system by 2045.

The lawsuit, Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation, was filed over concerns that HDOT wasn’t adequately working to meet the 2045 goal, and argued that things including floods and drought exacerbated by climate change were violating rights in Hawaii’s Constitution to a life-sustaining climate system.

According to the legal complaint, which also involved the Oregon-based nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, children born in 2020 are projected to experience a dramatic rise in extreme climate events like heat waves, wildfires, crop failures, droughts and floods compared with those born in 1960.

A few members of the new council, including Mia Nishiguchi, a rising senior at Kalani High School who chairs the council, also participated in Wednesday’s presentation to House and Senate members.

“They are a big part of how we move forward in all of these (plan) pieces,” Sniffen said.

The biggest and costliest piece of the plan is establishing clean fuel requirements for all types of transportation vehicles,
including cars, passenger jets and cargo ships.

Other plan elements highlighted by Sniffen included expanding pedestrian and bicycle path networks, building more public electric vehicle fast-charging stations, planting thousands of native trees and developing an analytical tool to measure greenhouse gas
impacts on all HDOT
projects.

Sniffen said $40 million to $50 million annually is to be put toward expanding pedestrian and bicycle path networks over the next five years, and that this represents a compression of what previously would have been done over 15 years.

“This connectivity is going to help us reduce our emissions and get people out on the road other than in their cars,” Sniffen said.

“It’s definitely an ambitious target, and we really appreciate HDOT stepping up on that,” Moriwake added.

The EV charging piece of the plan involves spending $40 million over the next five years to add more than a dozen new fast chargers, each featuring four charge ports at ideal locations around the state, including airports.

Sniffen said two such stations were added last year at Aloha Tower Marketplace and a Kahului park-and-ride lot using $2.5 million in
annual funding from the
federal government, though each station costs $1.5 million to $2 million. This year, six new stations are planned on the neighbor islands.

Plants, which sequester carbon dioxide that represents the biggest component of greenhouse gases, are also part of HDOT’s plan.

Kawika Pegram, a youth council member from Waipahu, told the legislative panel that HDOT already had a minimum commitment to plant 1,000 native trees annually but planted roughly 3,000 in 2024 and so far this year is up to about 4,200.

“So year over year you’re seeing that the DOT is surpassing their minimum expectations several times over,” Pegram said.

The agency has created a website to show what it has planted and where. The site, at 808ne.ws/4eunHeQ, indicates that the agency’s count includes shrubs and groundcover plants in addition to trees that HDOT either planted or supported planting.

Another element in the plan is to estimate greenhouse gas emissions for
every HDOT ground transportation project, including road widening and repair.

“No other state is doing this,” Sniffen said.

The single biggest greenhouse gas emissions change under HDOT’s plan is to come from imposing a clean fuels standard for air, ocean and ground transportation vehicles.

Such fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel for planes, liquefied natural gas for ships and lower-carbon fuels for vehicles on Hawaii roads will result in higher costs for industries and consumers, according to Sniffen, which elicited concerns from some lawmakers.

“I’m all for the decarbonization of Hawaii, but … you are asking folks to move towards a green infrastructure who don’t have green,” said Rep. Darius Kila (D, Nanakuli-Maili), referring to the color of paper money.

“I live in one of the most transportation-impacted areas in the state where work is not where we live, and everything is exacerbated based off of cost, and that’s just rural Oahu. I don’t even want to talk about neighbor island costs,” continued Kila, who chairs the House Transportation Committee. “I know what we’re trying to accomplish, but … you’re asking folks to almost bend to a capacity that they don’t have.”

HDOT intends to seek legislation to provide tax credits for airlines and ocean transportation firms to meet future Hawaii clean fuel standards while other potential incentives are envisioned for drivers throughout the state.

Sniffen said he expects transportation industry representatives to work with HDOT on figuring out how to achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, which under the agency’s plan also includes limiting the cruise ship industry locally and powering ships in port using shoreside power.

“None of the industries are pushing back and saying this is not important,” he said. “They are just saying we got to see how we do this so we can afford it.”

HDOT anticipates finishing an analysis that estimates a cost to reach the 2045 goal and expects to have a figure by January.

Sen. Brenton Awa (R, Kaneohe-Laie-Mokuleia) asked Sniffen whether the 2045 deadline could be pushed back depending on what the estimated cost ends up being.

Sniffen said that may be possible and noted that the airline industry has estimated that it will cost $1 billion more to meet the 2045 target compared with their own goal of 2050.

Sniffen also noted that HDOT’s plan is being produced to meet a target established by the Legislature.

“I’m not asking anybody to do this,” he said. “I’m following the law right now, and I’m showing what it takes to get to that 2045 goal.”

Sen. Chris Lee (D, Kailua-­Waimanalo-Hawaii Kai) also expressed concerns over Hawaii’s already high cost of living. But the chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts suggested that a long-term cost savings may result if reaching the state’s 2045 goal is done right.

HDOT plans to publish its draft plan Friday, host three public videoconference presentations and accept public comments through July 27.
A final plan is scheduled for completion by Aug. 27.