Foreign Minister Winston Peters says a Kiwi woman held for weeks by US immigration didn't properly declare a historic conviction, as her mum describes her daughter locked in a room with 46 detainees for 22 hours a day.
Everlee Wihongi, 36, has been detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing centre in California for nearly three weeks after being pulled aside at Los Angeles airport on return from a family holiday in New Zealand.
RNZ reports Wihongi faces a further six weeks in ICE detention after a judge set her next hearing date for June. Her mother said her daughter was upset at the decision.
Peters told reporters at Parliament today that Wihongi had not declared a prior conviction on her immigration paperwork.
"When the form asks you to do things, complete the form accurately," he said.
Asked directly whether that was the issue in Wihongi's case, he replied: "Yes, now how come you haven't told the public that?"
Wihongi had a conviction for cannabis possession dating back more than a decade that had been dealt with through the courts, according to an interview with her mother by RNZ's Mata. Cannabis is now legal in California, where she was detained.
Betty Wihongi told Mata she wanted Peters to "step up" and do more, saying no one had visited her daughter in detention and the family had not received help finding a lawyer from New Zealand consular representatives.
Peters rejected suggestions that the Government had not done enough, saying staff had been working on the case "from day one".
"This is going through a process internationally. The process has got to be followed. We cannot intervene. We can do our best to help, but that's all we can do.
"We are caught by these circumstances countless times – the last time we got somebody out of prison in Vietnam – it's always a difficult task," he said.
"Foreign Affairs, internationally, does a superb job. We're all over this, and we have done what we can to the max as we have in other cases".
Peters offered advice to Kiwis on green cards in the US with historic convictions.
"When you're required to declare them, declare them. That's what the rules say," he said.
Peters said New Zealand could not intervene in other countries' immigration policies and it was not the Government's place to comment on how the US enforced its laws.
"It is not our responsibility to comment on other countries' immigration policy. It's their democracy, that's for the American voters to decide."
He added: "That is for her to find a lawyer in the United States' system. Surely, you don't think it's the New Zealand taxpayers' responsibility to start providing legal advice?"
Sarah Shaw and her six-year-old son have been detained by US immigration officials after she tried to return to America from a trip to Canada. (Source: 1News)
A family spokesperson told 1News last week they had not been told why Wihongi was detained, but thought it might be linked to an historic conviction for possessing cannabis.
'This place no longer feels like home'
Wihongi's mother told RNZ's Mata she had been terrified for her daughter.
Betty Wihongi described waiting at LAX for hours before receiving a call from her distraught daughter, who told her she was being sent to an ICE detention centre.
The family did not hear from her again for days, when she briefly turned on her phone and her siblings tracked her location to a California facility.
She described her daughter's living conditions — a single room shared with 46 detainees, with bunks on one side and tables where they ate, slept and spent 22 hours of each day.
Detainees were allowed outside for one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Asked what he wanted Peters to know, she said: "I want him to know that his whānau needs his help, and for him to step up, and do something about Everlee.
"There has to be something that the New Zealand Government can do. There has to be. And two, train your people to help your people here, because the help we're getting is not the best from the New Zealand consulate."
The Wihongi family moved from New Zealand to Wisconsin three decades ago.
"This place no longer feels like home to us, especially after seeing how my daughter's been treated," she said.
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