In the wake of two killings of protesters by federal agents and amid bitter national debate over immigration enforcement, Gov. Josh Green said Tuesday he’d welcome action by the state Legislature to fast-track legislation protecting immigrants.
Green spoke to several hundred people who rallied in the Capitol rotunda against federal immigration policy, carrying signs that said “Resist Dictatorship,” “No Secret Police, No troops in our streets” and “Murdered by ICE.”
Afterward, the governor told Civil Beat it was time for Hawaiʻi politicians to say no.
“Obviously, this moment in America is perilous,” Green said, “and anything that states can do to make it clear that we’re standing up against this kind of violence and that we’re protecting people, is the right thing to do.”
Green said he’d “love to have bills come to me as fast as can be” and added that seeing much of the Legislature’s leadership together at the rally gave him hope that it could happen.
Leading state lawmakers were caught off guard by Green’s remarks when asked about them a few hours later at a public Civil Beat forum previewing the 2026 legislative session. The previous day, following his state of the state address, Green had struck a different tone, saying he could “stand up” for Hawaii values without taking too adversarial an approach.
“I did not know he was thinking in that direction until just now,” House Majority Leader Sean Quinlan said at the event. Asked if bills that have been introduced in recent days to protect immigrants will be fast-tracked, Quinlan said, “I don’t know, maybe.”
Rep. Lauren Cheape Matsumoto, a Republican and the House minority leader, suggested she would be in favor of moving quickly “as long as the bills go through proper process, have public input.”
The third panelist, Assistant Majority Whip Chris Lee, said, “That’s actually the first I heard that as well. But I expect to be part of the conversation.”
Tuesday’s rally came three days after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents during one of the demonstrations against ICE that have seized Minneapolis since an ICE agent shot Renee Good dead in her vehicle on Jan. 7 during another confrontation with immigration authorities.
Standing beside poster boards printed with photographs of Pretti and Good, Green told the crowd that “last time I checked, America believed in freedom of speech and protest and peaceful protest, and we believed that we were here to be protected by our government and supported in these moments.
“That’s not what we’ve been seeing, and it’s tragic,” he said, “to imagine what we’re losing in America.”
Advocates liked what they heard.
“We wanted them to make a commitment that they’re going to protect Hawaiʻi, and we’re grateful that they came out and did that,” said Sergio Alcubilla, director of community engagement at ACLU of Hawaiʻi.
House Speaker Nadine Nakamura, who also spoke, said immigrants need protection as do their rights to due process.
“We have to look at the legislation before us this session to make sure that we build in protections, we build in accountability, and we build in penalties that will make sure that Hawaiʻi residents are protected,” she said.
Rally organizers urged the crowd to contact their legislators to advocate for bills that would protect immigrants, a number of which died in the last legislative session.
Among bills introduced again this session are one that would essentially prohibit local law enforcement officers from cooperating with immigration authorities. Another would limit agents’ access to so-called “safe places” such as schools, medical facilities, courthouses and libraries.
State Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who introduced several such bills in the Senate, said after the rally he hoped committees would hear them quickly.
“We’ll be sending out requests that they be put for hearing as soon as they can be,” said Keohokalole, who is also running for Hawaiʻi’s 1st Congressional District seat now held by Rep. Ed Case.
Fast-tracking bills is rare and not easy. It generally requires that legislation pass through as few committees as possible in one chamber, with little amendment, and go through a similar process in the other chamber so it can be sent directly to the governor rather than back to the first chamber.
In a recent notable example, the Legislature in 2023 fast-tracked a bill that enshrined a range of protections for abortion procedures following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.
“We just pushed that thing through,” Keohokalole said.
Green was less definitive when asked whether he would support bills to largely prohibit local police from cooperating with federal authorities in connection with immigration enforcement activities. Places that have adopted such laws are often dubbed “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
“We already have our attorney general carefully separating and making sure that ICE doesn’t overreach,” Green said, “so that’s what we’re doing as an administration already. But if the Legislature wants to fully describe (the limits on cooperation), that can be helpful.”
There is a necessary “balance” when it comes to immigrants who have committed “terrible crimes,” Green said. “Any criminal, they should be treated through due process and may have to leave the country.”
But, he added, “We should never be targeting our citizens, never be targeting someone who is not a citizen but is living a peaceful life working here in America. That’s not what we’re about,” he said. “I think that’s what (legislators) are trying to get at.”
Green has spoken publicly about not needlessly antagonizing the Trump administration and has traveled to D.C. frequently to meet with officials.
“It’s my job to try to keep an even keel with the administration so that I don’t blow my stack and put a target on our back,” he said Monday to reporters after delivering his state of the state address.
However, he could easily incur the president’s wrath if he were to support a sanctuary-style bill or safe places legislation that echoes a federal policy Trump struck down the day he was inaugurated for his second term.
Jurisdictions with sanctuary laws have found themselves in the administration’s crosshairs, demonized as threats to national security and at times facing ramped-up immigration enforcement, including in Chicago and Minneapolis.
Immigrant advocates nonetheless said those kinds of protections are needed as soon as possible.
“That is exactly what we want to hear; hope is not a plan,” Liza Ryan Gill, co-coordinator of the Hawaiʻi Coalition for Immigrant Rights, said of Green’s and Keohokalole’s statements on Tuesday.
“We need to be ready as a state,” Gill said. “This is like a natural disaster, as we have seen in Minnesota. So urgency is key.”
