Eight people were arrested on Oahu over the weekend and are facing removal for violating U.S. immigration laws as part of a nationwide push to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.
The Homeland Security Investigations’ Honolulu division announced in a Sunday post on the social media platform X that federal agents “participated in a multi-agency operation with federal law enforcement partners to enforce federal laws to keep Hawaii safe.”
The post included photos of five of the eight people as they were arrested over the weekend, with only the backs of federal agents dressed in tactical gear visible.
Rays Rayphand was arrested Friday, R.J. Marsolo and Herman Faamausili were taken into custody Saturday by Enforcement and Removal Operations and HSI. Yoon Ja Carter and Moshe Greidy were arrested on Sunday by ERO and HSI with assistance from agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
HSI agents and ERO conducted “joint operations on Oahu to locate and apprehend individuals subject to removal from the United States,” according to statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations.
“These individuals, convicted of various crimes, have final orders of removal issued by a federal immigration judge and are therefore ineligible to remain in the country,” read the statement. “They are now in ERO custody pending removal. The Drug Enforcement Administration also assisted in this multi-agency effort to enhance public safety in Hawaii by enforcing federal immigration laws.”
What crimes the eight committed and where was not immediately made public.
Marsolo pleaded guilty in state court in 2013 to felony and misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to state court records. Faamausili has prior convictions that include impaired driving, disorderly conduct, and driving without a license or insurance.
Rayphand, Carter and Greidy did not show up in a Hawaii court-record search.
In the past week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with help from federal law enforcement agencies made more than 5,500 arrests and lodged more than 4,300 detainers on immigrants they allege are in the U.S. illegally.
ICE lodges detainers on people who have been arrested on criminal charges and who ICE has probable cause to believe are “removable non-citizens.”
Trump said on Wednesday he will order the U.S. Department of Defense and DHS to prepare a migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for as many as 30,000 migrants, according to Reuters.
The U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, already houses a migrant facility — separate from the high-security U.S. prison for foreign terrorism suspects — that has been used on occasion for decades, including to hold Haitians and Cubans picked up at sea.
“Today I’m also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay,” Trump said at the White House Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The facility would be used to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo. This will double our capacity immediately, right? And, tough.”
Also on Sunday, Immi- gration and Customs Enforcement, along with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, DEA, Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Marshals Service, began “conducting enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago to enforce U.S. immigration law and “preserve public safety and national security” by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities, according to a DHS news release.
The U.S. Attorney’s office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Honolulu division deferred comment on the immigration arrests to HSI.
The state was not involved in “Homeland Security Investigation-related immigration enforcement actions,” according to a statement to the Star-Advertiser from the state Department of the Attorney General.
The Honolulu Police Department did not participate in the federal operation.
“The Attorney General, as the chief legal officer, is oath-bound to enforce state laws and to stand up for constitutional freedoms and the rule of law. Attorney General Anne Lopez will continue to do so,” according to a statement from the department. “If notified of any illegal actions, the Attorney General will assess next steps and uphold the rule of law.”
The public can report their concerns by emailing the Department of the Attorney General at HawaiiAG@hawaii.gov.
