Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Rules on Slave Ship Case

Court says the slavers don’t (can’t?) operate in Hawaii waters. They didn’t address the core question of how the persons “held on board” could be issued a fishing license. And the Lege has required info on them as a result which will help trafficking NGOs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 11, 2022

Paia, Maui — The Hawai’i Supreme Court affirmed that longline fishing is not permitted in Hawai’i state waters in a memorandum opinion issued today.

Native Hawaiian waterman and Pa’ia resident Malama Chun had filed an appeal against the state BLNR regarding his petition challenging DLNR’s practice of issuing licenses to foreign nonimmigrant fishermen refused landing privileges and confined to their ships while in port.

Chun originally filed his petition in April, 2017. The BLNR first denied the petition on the grounds that Chun lacked standing. Chun appealed and the Maui Environmental Court reversed that decision in December, 2017, sending it back to the BLNR to decide the merits of Chun’s petition.

The BLNR then decided that foreign fishermen who have been denied entry into the United States and are confined to their ships pending deportation are “lawfully admitted to the United States” and therefore permitted to obtain commercial marine licenses.

State law restricts the issuance of commercial fishing licenses to persons “lawfully admitted to the United States” Foreign fishermen working in the longline fishing industry are refused permission to land in the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are also ordered deported.

However, using a loophole, ICE authorizes the fisherman’s boat captain to hold the fisherman’s passport and the deportation order and allow the boat captain to determine when the deportation is to occur. To enforce the deportation order, the piers at which the fishing boats dock are heavily militarized and access is restricted — a practice criticized by the Human Rights Institute in its 2019 report of forced labor in Hawaii’s longline fishing industry.

The Supreme Court narrowly ruled that the legislature intended to limit “state waters” under the licensing statute to 12 nautical miles from shore and not out to the 200 mile exclusive economic zone. In so ruling, the Court declined to address the BLNR’s conclusion that a person refused admission to the United States is nevertheless also lawfully admitted to the United States.

The holding is also limited by the legislature’s passing of Act 43 last year which radically changed commercial marine licenses processes. Vessels, instead of individuals, are now issued commercial marine licenses.

In response to concerns over human rights abuses on board longline vessels including Chun’s petition, longline fishing vessels must report the following information to the state annually in obtaining vessel licenses: the identity, nationality, arrival date and departure date of crew members of each vessel.

Chun’s attorney, Lance D. Collins, added: “While we are disappointed in the narrow ruling of the Court, the court’s decision and the new reporting requirements of Act 43 will help to limit the more excessive abuses of vulnerable foreign crewmembers in the longline industry.”

Attorney Bianca Isaki also served as co-counsel for Malama Chun.

Contact: Lance D. Collins lawyer@maui.net 808-243-9292

Hawai’i Continues to Enable Slave Fishing Ships

      Hawaiian waterman Malama Chun filed another appeal in the Maui Environmental Court against the state Board of Land and Natural Resources regarding his petition challenging DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources practice of issuing licenses to foreign fisherman who have been refused permission to land in Hawai’i by U.S. authorities and have been ordered deported.

      Chun originally filed his petition in April, 2017. The BLNR first denied the petition on the grounds that Chun lacked standing. Chun appealed and the Maui Environmental Court reversed that decision in December, 2017, sending it back to the BLNR to decide the merits of Chun’s petition.

      In a mind-bending decision DLNR concluded that foreign fishermen who have been denied entry into the United States and are confined to their ships pending deportation are “lawfully admitted to the United States” and therefore permitted to obtain commercial marine licenses.

      State law restricts the issuance of commercial fishing licenses to persons “lawfully admitted to the United States”. Foreign fishermen working in the longline fishing industry are refused permission to land in the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are also ordered deported. Any reasonable person (or attorney) would conclude they are therefore not “lawfully admitted to the United States”.

      However, using a loophole, ICE authorizes the fisherman’s boat captain to hold the fisherman’s passport and the deportation order and allow the boat captain to determine when the deportation is to occur. To enforce the deportation order, the piers at which the fishing boats dock are heavily militarized and access is restricted.

This effectively imprisons the fishermen on the ships for months (or years) at a time making them virtual slaves.

       Malama Chun commented, “This makes no sense. It’s like the land board looked at the blue ocean and insisted to all that it’s red.”

      Chun’s attorney, Lance D. Collins, added: “The statute is clear. The practice is illegal. The Land Board cannot interpret the parts of a statute it doesn’t like out of existence. That’s the prerogative of the legislature.”

The force behind continuing this form of slave labor is the Hawaii Longline Fishing Association. The effect of these rules is to drive Hawai’i fishermen out of existence because they pay prevailing U.S. wages and the slaver ships do not.

Ethics Complaint Alleges Private Prison Hid Lobbying Payments Made to Doug Chin.

On January 4, 2018, Karen Chun filed a complaint with the Hawaii State Ethics Board alleging that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) aka Core Civic neglected on four occasions to report that they were paying Attorney General Doug Chin to lobby on their behalf.  That complaint was later followed up by a more formal sworn complaint.

Chun alleges that CCA’s oversight in not reporting money paid for Chin’s lobbying was to prevent the public and the state senators from having full information on Chin’s lobbying activities during his vetting and confirmation process.

CCA operates the Saguaro private prison at a cost to Hawaii of $45 million in 2016.

AG Chin was confirmed in January of 2015. Four months after his confirmation, in April of 2015, CCA submitted amendments to their four filings for 2013 and 2014 add that they paid $68,748 Chin to lobby for them.

Chin was appointed to Attorney General and confirmed in January 2015. His lobbying history was supposed to be public. It was hidden from the public during his entire vetting and confirmation process,” states Ms. Chun.

From 2008 to 2010, four Hawaii prisoners died after being involved in incidents occurring at Saguaro. There have been constant complaints of poor oversight and Saguaro has been the subject of investigations by journalists.

Doug Chin has defended the Department of Safety in blocking journalists from obtaining information on deaths and injuries of prisoners in CCA’s custody. Mother Jones details their unsuccessful attempts to pry information out of the State.

A day after Chun initially emailed her complaint to the ethics complaint, Chin stated he will announce Sunday whether he would be stepping down from his position as Attorney General.


Facts of the complaint:

CCA filed their Lobbying disclosure for May 1 – Dec 31, 2013 without mention of any money paid to Doug Chin. Originally filed – 1/31/2014

They then filed the  Jan 1 – Feb 28, 2014 lobbying disclosure – again without mention of money paid to Doug Chin.  Originally filed – 3/27/2014.

Once again the filed for the period of Mar 1 – Apr 30, 2014 somehow forgetting to include money paid to Doug Chin.  Originally filed – 5/30/2014.

And for the fourth time the Lobbying Period – May 1 – Dec 31, 2014 report omitted money paid to Doug Chin. Originally filed – 1/12/2014.

Chin was appointed and confirmed to Attorney General in January 2015.

On April 6th, three months after Chin’s confirmation, CCA came back and amended all four disclosures to reveal that they had paid over $68,000 to Doug Chin for lobbying on behalf of the private prison corporation.

Amended (to include Chin $27,500) – 4/8/2015
Amended (to include Chin $2,500) – 4/8/2015
Amended (to include Chin $7,500) – 4/8/2015
Amended again (to include Sabas $31,248, Chin $31,248) – 4/8/2015

 

 

Hawaiian Fisherman Sues Over Slave Ships

NATIVE HAWAIIAN WATERMAN SUES STATE
OVER ILLEGAL LICENSING OF FOREIGN FISHERMEN

On July 31, 2017 Malama Chun  filed suit against the Board of Land and Natural Resources in Maui’s Environmental Court. He had previously asked the Department of Land and Natural Resources not to issue commercial fishing licenses to non-resident fishermen who are confined to boats at Honolulu and Hilo harbors when at port. Chun is represented by Maui attorney Lance D. Collins.

The Board in a 6-1 decision (Board member Stanley Roehrig dissenting) refused to address the substantive issue of its Division of Aquatic Resources illegally issuing commercial fishing licenses to non-resident fishermen who are not legally allowed to enter the United States and as a consequence of their status are held in prison-like conditions on their boats while docked in Honolulu and Hilo.

State law restricts the issuance of commercial fishing licenses to persons “lawfully admitted to the United States”. Obviously if a fisherman is under a deportation order indicating they cannot legally set foot on land in the U.S. and are ordered “detained on board” the slaver ship, they do not meet the requirement for obtaining a Hawai’i fishing license.

The Board also did not hold a public hearing to deny the matter – going against its traditional custom of making its decisions at public meetings.

On April 12, 2017, Malama Chun, a Native Hawaiian waterman, who fishes, filed a petition with the state Board of Land and Natural Resources challenging DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources practice of issuing licenses to foreign fisherman who have been refused permission to land in Hawai’i by U.S. authorities and have been ordered deported.

Foreign fishermen working in the longline fishing industry are refused permission to land in the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are also ordered deported. However, using a loophole, they authorize the fisherman’s boat captain to hold the fisherman’s passport and the deportation order and allow the boat captain to determine when the deportation is to occur. To enforce the deportation order, the piers at which the fishing boats dock are heavily militarized and access is restricted.

Chun said, “The members of the BLNR must have been too ashamed to make their decision at a public meeting. The situation is bad for these fishermen and its bad for Hawaii’s people. And I know in their hearts they know its wrong which is why they didn’t give us a public hearing before deciding.”

Chun’s attorney, Lance D. Collins, added: “We have filed the agency appeal in the Environmental Court ”

 

Labor Dept asked to investigate longline fishers for violations

On September 19th, Trinette Furtado requested that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations look into what she described as “the widespread Violations of the Hawai’i labor laws by the longline fishing industry.” Furtado alleges that, “Unlike reputable native Hawaiian and other local fishing outfits, these labor violations oppress workers, deceive consumers and undercut competition within the market.”

The longline fishing industry is composed of fishing vessels which engage in fishing and fishing related activities including transportation of products and housing of foreign fish workers within the territorial waters of the State of Hawai’i. They use state resources managed by the Department of Land and Natural Resource and Harbors Division of the Department of Transportation’s controlled and operated state harbors. They unload their products in Honolulu where they are sold and enter into the Hawai’i market and beyond.

As has been reported previously and recently in the press, many longline fishing boat owners use labor recruiters to recruit fish workers from Third World countries. These workers come from subsistence or other impoverished backgrounds and have no familiarity with Hawai’i wage and labor laws.

They are generally ineligible to admission into the United States. Instead, using an obscure practice of the Department of Homeland Security, employers obtain standard deportation forms from Homeland Security which require that these workers be “detained-on-board” by the boat owner and/or captain.

According to Furtado, “Individuals employed in these enterprises generally are told they will be paid $300/month for a twenty-four month term. However, often, $100/month is deducted to give the labor recruiter and the remainder is kept by the boat owner until the end of the term, many deducting meal and other expenses from the amounts.”

“We have come across no evidence that these workers are paid weekly or bi-weekly or that they are given a regular accounting of their wages and deductions,” continued Furtado.

Furtado attached the names of numerous individuals being “detained on board” and examples of worker contracts backing up her allegations.

This practice of allowing fishing workers working in Hawai’i waters and using Hawai’i docks to be “detained on board” violates both Hawaiian values and the Hawai’i constitution, according to Furtado.

Letter to Labor Department (names redacted):

Kaua’i Election Could Trigger Senate Reorganization

The 2015 senate coup and power-grab lead by the anti-environmental senators, Jill Tokuda and Gil Keith-Agaran resulted in Kaua’i senator Ron Kouchi taking over the senate presidency.  At that time senators who weren’t playing ball with development and chemical companies were ousted from their committee chair positions.

Sen Ron Kouchi
Sen Ron Kouchi

But on Kaua’i there is dissatisfaction with Sen. Kouchi for his “bullying” style, use of state funds for cronies, and lack of responsiveness on Kaua’i issues.  For example, although some money was allocated to fix Kauai’s horrendous traffic problems, residents are angry that Kouchi has not used his leadership position to actually move improvements forward.

Residents  are also upset that Kouchi voted in favor of Sen Tokuda’s bill to defund affordable housing and DLNR.  This 2015 bill was crafted to obscure Kouchi and Tokuda’s fingerprints.  It removed the conveyance tax set-aside for DLNR and capped the amount going to affordable housing.  Then it funded the lost DLNR for 2 years.  On July 1, 2017 DLNR will abruptly lose $30million in funding as a result.  But at that time, Tokuda and Kouchi will act surpised and shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Challenger Kanoe Ahuna wants affordable housing and DLNR funding restored.  She sees both as issues important to Kaua’i residents.

According to Ahuna, “Affordable housing and housing for our kūpuna is a top priority for Kaua’i residents.  Instead of taking money away from this, I will work to get us the funding we need to ensure our residents and their children are not priced out of their own birthplace.”

She added, “Removing thirty million dollars from the DLNR budget is going to have a devastating impact on Kaua’i residents.  We depend on state parks like Kōkeʻe, Polihale, Hāʻena and the Napali Coast for our family recreation.

Hawai’i already spends less on natural resource protection (despite being dependent on it for tourism) than many other states.  For instance, Oregon with 2.8 times the population spends 6.7 times as much on resource protection And  tourism isn’t even in its top 10 industries.

Kouchi  support the bill which allowed companies such as AirBnB (a donor to his campaign) to collect transient vacation rental taxes without disclosing the possibly illegal (unpermited) TVR owners.  In response, Ahuna while agreeing that the missing TAT revenue was a problem,  expressed concern about the role of illegal TVRs driving up home prices and removing homes from the local inventory.

“Vacation rentals are an important part of our tourism economy, however illegal vacation rentals threaten housing and job security for our local families, and by not paying to state and county tax dollars then burdens our local residents through taxing through other means.”

Kouchi using his position for business dealings has also created scandal.  He inserted special interest deals into the 2016 budget that benefit his associate, Kevin M. Showe. According to the Star Advertiser:

In addition to the proposed Kapua deal, senators also inserted language into the Senate draft of the state budget bill this year to provide $5 million to Kauai County to buy a Kauai apartment complex called the Courtyards at Waipouli that is owned by one of Showe’s companies.

Courtyards at Waipouli is a workforce housing project developed by Showe under a 2007 agreement with the County of Kauai that required Showe to provide affordable housing as a condition of rezoning for a resort project called Kauai Lagoons.

Showe’s company K D Waipouli LLC developed the 82-unit Courtyards at Waipouli, and Kouchi represented K D Waipouli before the Kauai County Board of Water Supply in 2009 on issues related to the project, county records show.

Kouchi, who was appointed to the state Senate in 2010 and became Senate president last year, has done business with Showe for years. Kouchi has invested with Showe, and worked for at least seven years for Showe’s companies as a community relations representative, according to state and county records.

Kouchi’s donors (and he collected a whopping  $87,561.78 on his last disclosure) are a who’s who of construction, tobacco, insurance, and timeshare PACs including AirBnB and a Monsanto lobbyist.

Ahuna’s donors appear to be family (Apana) friends and residents of Kaua’i.

 

Big Five A&B gets legislature to overrule Court

When Native Hawaiian Legal Corp won a landmark case against A&B forcing A&B to return East Maui stream water, the decision was hailed as a step forward in reining in a missionary company whose environmentally damaging practices have continued for 140 years.  A&B has traditionally controlled enough legislators to get away with anything.  But finally, the Court called a halt on their exploitation of the environment and Hawaiians.

But wait!

A&B induced legislators friendly to them, in particular, Joe Souki and Kyle Yamashita, to sponsor legislation to overrule the court decision on the “holdover” permits.  DLNR invented the status “holdover” so that A&B could pull millions of gallons per day from East Maui for 13 years without doing the environmental assessment that is required by law.  The court ruled that yes, this was a fiction and that DLNR couldn’t invent a special category of permit designed to excuse A&B from complying with the water rules.

A&B, through the Farm Bureau, then issued a highly misleading flyer to the legislature listing entities with “revocable” permits in an attempt to confuse legislators into thinking that HB2501 applied to other entities.  But the fact is, that only A&B has “holdover” permits and this bill has no effect on anyone else.  When some of the entities mentioned on the flyer were interviewed they not only didn’t know their names had been used but were highly incensed that they had been used to support a bill that they opposed.

Kahea had this to say:

The people of East Maui have long awaited the full return of water to their streams. Almost all of their water has been taken by Alexander & Baldwin Company, which has been diverting millions of gallons of water every day for decades primarily for its commercial sugar production. We know there is more than enough water to ensure diversified agriculture (including hemp) on Maui, for healthy streams and a vibrant taro-growing community. There is more water flowing through the streams of East Maui every day than is consumed on the entire island of O‘ahu. Now that A&B has announced its last sugar plantation will close by the end of 2016 and the courts have ruled the state improperly allowed A&B to continue diverting water from public land without permits, we expect the streams to flow again.

But the streams have not been fully restored. Despite ongoing litigation which has invalidated their water permits in addition to an incomplete contested case, A&B is using its billion-dollar political influence to aggressively pursue a bill in the state legislature to evade a court ruling against them. Proposed measure HB2501 would allow A&B to divert an unlimited amount of water indefinitely without environmental review or mitigation for the harm to East Maui residents who rely on that water for drinking, bathing, cooking, and growing taro.

To begin to restore the balance in our environment and justice in our community, A&B’s “water theft” bill (HB2501) cannot be adopted into law.

Sen Gabbard killed the senate version of the bill but the House passed HB2501, helped by Speaker Souki and an astonishing lack of critical thinking by the House members.

As the House bill crossed over to the Senate for another bite of the apple, A&B concentrated on convincing senators that overruling the court decision would help food production on Maui.  Never mind that they intend to grow biofuel crops and perhaps lease a small amount of land to a cattle operation.  Oh, and lease 1,000 acres to Mayor Arakawa to make sure he continues supporting them.

Additionally, A&B appears to have continued water diversions despite the court invalidating their permits.

Nonetheless, the senate explicitly removed A&B from HB2501 which left it legislating A&B’s cover story (e.g. nothing, since no one else had a holdover permit.) Apparently A&B and the Farm Bureau did such a good job getting the senator’s completely bamboozled that they now had a bill that was unnecessary but which they thought was protecting small water users with revocable permits – water users who had never asked for the bill but had only been used as cover for A&B’s special interest bill.

As was expected, the bill went to conference committee and A&B was put back into HB2501 making it once again, an illegal bill designed to help a single company.  (A no-no in the Lege and the reason the State Supreme Court invalidated the Superferry Act 2)

Coincidentally, the day prior, A&B announced they would release water in the seven most contentious streams of East Maui.  Legislators hailed this as a selfless act – without understanding A&B was only partially obeying the court order requiring cessation of water diversions.   The Court voided A&B’s permit to divert this water.  A&B’s PR is indeed masterful.

The most charitable interpretation of the conference committee’s action is that the legislators brokered a deal whereby A&B released the most contentious of water diversions in exchange for getting their special interest bill passed.

The less charitable interpretation is that many senators have taken quite a bit of money from A&B and know that A&B controls the Forward Progress Super PAC with its $10,000,000 donor PAC.  Babes Against Biotech did the research:

A&Bcontributions

As the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp said:

“Over one hundred years ago, shrewd and politically-savvy sugar barons acquired control of vast amounts of land and resources to exploit for their commercial enterprises. … Today, history repeats itself, as A&B has once again used its clout to entice certain Hawaii state legislators and agencies to defy — even collude to overturn — a court order declaring A&B’s East Maui diversion of any streams flowing across 33,000 acres of state ceded lands for its commercial enterprise to be illegal.”

But wait!  There’s more!

The House under Speaker Souki, decided to protect A&B and HB2501 from further legal action by defunding the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. in the judicial supplemental funding bill, SB2102 .  Yes.  Speaker Souki’s House not only created a special interest bill undermining the court decision on water,  but is also attempting make sure that the illegal bill won’t be challenged by defunding the public interest law firm which won the case in the first place.

Somehow we suspect this will not stop the plethora of environmental and Hawaiian organizations from challenging HB2501 as a special interest bill created for the benefit of a single company.

 

Corruption at the top of the Hawai’i Pesticide Division

The large chemical companies are challenging Hawai’i county laws mandating pesticide buffer zones and introduce “right to farm” bills galore because, they say, pesticides are regulated by the Department of Agriculture Pesticide Division headed by Thomas Matsuda.

In an explosive release of phone transcripts, citizen investigators at the Facebook group, “Maui’s Dirty Little Secrets” show that the Pesticide Branch is not enforcing the EPA rules on pesticides and is, in fact, dragging their feet on known contamination sites and spraying regimes violating the label instructions.  It is illegal to use pesticides in a manner inconsistent with label instructions which have the force of law.

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Monsanto awards itself Wildlife Habitat "certification"

Monsanto has been trumpeting its award from the Wildlife Habitat Council – a PR invention by the worlds most egregious polluters.  Their website appears to be created by the same company that created Great Ecology‘s website.  Great Ecology is a corporate PR company.

According to a website critical of the Wildlife Habitat Council, its members include major polluters such as Koch Industries, Bayer, Dow, Monsanto itself, BASF, Exxon, Dupont and more.  The following is a partial list of members reproduced from the site.

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