Her mother, Betty Wihongi, told the Herald that Everlee’s lawyer was told by ICE to petition the court under the Freedom of Information Act in order to receive her charge/s.
“Her lawyer told us she needed to fill out a form to see what Everlee’s being charged with,” Betty said.
“The lawyer went to ICE to get a form but was told by an agent they do not hand out the forms and that they needed to petition the courts under the Freedom of Information to get a form.”
Family of Everlee Wihongi say she was detained by ICE agents in Los Angeles International Airport. Photo / GoFundMe
The family thought the detention may be linked to a historic drug charge going back more than a decade.
But they say Everlee has received conflicting reasons.
“A guard at the centre told Everlee she was in there because she was ‘undocumented’ and the border patrol told her it was for ‘having too many Green Cards’,” Betty said.
“If it was a Green Card issue, she should have just been sent back to her home country, back to New Zealand, and sort it out with immigration here.”
Everlee, a long-time Wisconsin resident, was stopped by immigration officials at Los Angeles Airport (LAX) after flying in from Auckland on April 10.
She and her family had spent five weeks visiting relatives in Northland and Tokoroa after years away because of the pandemic.
Betty told the Herald there had been trouble back and forth with Everlee’s Green Card in recent years, once when it was stolen in car theft and another time when a new one was sent to the wrong address.
“She did everything right, she reapplied with Homeland Security every time and once a year she would have to walk down to the local office in Milwaukee and get it physically stamped.”
Everlee was told the only other option is to wait for her sentencing on April 28, when her charges would be listed.
“First off, agents told her she’d be seeing a judge within 24 hours of being in the centre and now it’s been 10 days, and she doesn’t even know what she’s been charged with,” Betty said.
The Wihongi family have been based in Wisconsin since the 1990s, after immigrating when Everlee was 5 years old.
