The 37-year-old Ngāpuhi woman was detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while attempting to return to the US on the Green Card - or Permanent Resident Card - after a three-week holiday in New Zealand in early April, because of a 2016 cannabis conviction.
She has lived in the US for decades.
Everlee's mother Betty Wihongi and sister-in-law Courtney Wihongi told RNZ's Saturday Morning programme of their huge sense of relief after confirmation she had been released near Phoenix in Arizona.
After initially being unable to find out whether today's scheduled hearing had gone ahead, and frantic attempts to get through, they were finally able to make contact and speak with the just-released Everlee on FaceTime.
"I can't even put into words how we are feeling right now," Courtney said. "That's when it really hit that she's actually out and that she's actually free.
"It's been a rollercoaster the past 24 hours."
Everlee was originally detained in California on April 10 this year, but later transferred to Arizona.
On release, she had been given back the bags and clothes she entered the US with and put on a bus from the ICE detention centre, which she was on for five hours before being dropped off at a Welcome Centre in Phoenix.
"We're just relieved and happy that we're at this point right now," Betty said.
"We're on the way to the airport right now. We're looking forward to seeing her."
However after the ordeal and uncertainty, Betty was frustrated that essential government identification documents had not been among Everlee's personal belongings that were returned on release.
It meant her daughter could not even book a hotel room for herself until her family were able to fly across the US to meet her.
"We're trying to organise a place for her to go and stay at while she's waiting for us to arrive", Betty said.
Once reunited, the family plan to get her back home to Wisconsin in the next few days.
Courtney said her sister-in-law would need to do some healing after the experience and the conditions, including being housed in rooms with up to 60 others at a time.
"At the moment, she's so content to be out and to be free. [But] it's no conditions that any human being should have to endure ... it's been terrible," Courtney said.
Betty said the New Zealand Government's response had not been good enough.
"I'm just really disappointed with the New Zealand Government, and with a lot of the misinformation that [Foreign Affairs Minister] Winston Peters put out - it just really hurt our case with the lies that he put out."
The family did receive assistance from the New Zealand consulate after Everlee had been in detention for about three weeks, she said, which had been helpful.
The family would also be breathing a sigh of relief that the fight was over, as work to monitor her situation and help progress Everlee through the US court system had taken a lot of energy.
"Every day I was contacting journalists, researching things, trying to reach out to different people that could possibly help, working with the legal team that we had," Courtney said.
"It was definitely no sleep and working on this 24/7 for the last two months."
Everlee Wihongi's lawyer, Marc Christopher, was also celebrating her release.
He said Everlee had been at the Eloy Detention Centre before being freed about 20 minutes away from Phoenix.
"She was released at about 8am this morning. (NZ time).
"They took her to a facility in Phoenix, where they have people who have recently been released, and the family is on their way right now to bring her home.
"Hopefully, by the end of the weekend, she's going to be back home in Wisconsin.
"We are very, very happy."
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz |  |
