Aloha for Alex “A Day of Remembrance and Action” Spurs Community Wide Support for Bills to Protect Due Process and Hawaiʻi Residents

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
January 27, 2026

HONOLULU, HI – On Tuesday, January 27, over 300 people gathered at the Hawai‘i State Capitol for a community vigil to honor the life of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who was killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis last week.

The vigil was organized by the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i (“ACLU-HI”), Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights (“HCIR”), and The Legal Clinic Hawai‘i. Together, the three organizations are leading statewide efforts to advance policies that protect and defend due process for all through the Campaign for Immigrant Justice (“CIJ”).

Gov. Josh Green, House Speaker Nadine Nakamura and Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi attended the vigil and gave remarks in support of increased protections for our immigrant communities in Hawai‘i, as well as to honor the lives of both Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, who was killed by ICE agents on January 7.

Gov. Green shared:

It is unacceptable to take another person’s life under any circumstance. Alex was a healer. He cared for veterans, as you just heard. He showed up for others. By all accounts, even in his final moments, he was trying to help someone else from harm. . . . As governor, it’s my responsibility with the lieutenant governor [Sylvia Luke]. . . it’s our responsibility to stand up for what’s right. . . . I will use every tool that is given to me by the Legislature and that we have to make sure that people are treated with dignity and respect in this state. . . . This is not a place of confrontation but we will stand up.

Mayor Blangiardi added:

Public safety is our number one priority. . . the word “public” does not have delineation—it’s everybody. . . . What happened in Minnesota should not have happened. It’s a tragedy and we’re not going to let that happen here.

Several legislators, many of whom have already expressed their support for the campaign’s key priorities, gathered and offered their presence as well.

House Speaker Nadine Nakamura shared:

Our responsibility as legislators is to look at the legislation before us this session and make sure that we build in protections, we build in accountability, and we build in penalties that make sure that Hawai‘i residents are protected and that those who are helping our immigrants have the resources they need to protect our people who have been detained and make sure they have due process.

Members of the Campaign for Immigrant Justice Steering Committee closed out the vigil with a call to action on why Hawaiʻi must move anti-collaboration and due process bills quickly this legislative session.

Liza Ryan-Gill, Executive Director of HCIR, shared:

No family, no community, should ever consider whether or not they are going to lose their life to protest and protect their neighbors. We also gather to tell the truth: the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Homeland Security have been escalating enforcement, hiding in secrecy, and dodging accountability while our neighbors live with fear.

Mandy Fernandes, Policy Director of ACLU-HI, shared:

Hawai‘i must protect the rule of law at home. . . We’ve already seen a major escalation of force in the state, and raids are happening across the islands, even before ICE’s budget gets supercharged. [The federal administration] have already attacked red states and blue states. And the only thing that seems to deter them is when neighbors stand up for each other like we’ve seen in Minnesota and cling tight to their values.

For more information on the Campaign for Immigrant Justice, please visit: https://www.hicir.org/our-work/2026cij

Video recording link available here.