RMI President Visits to Arkansas, Washington and Oregon Furthers President’s Outreach

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Posted By: Melanie Carbine March 27, 2025

As part of H.E. President Hilda C. Heine’s commitment to outreach for the Marshallese communities in the United States, more than 30 cities have received consular visits with more than 70 more schedule for this year. Between March 18 and March 25, President Heine, accompanied by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Kalani Kaneko, Ambassador Charles Paul, and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade visited several cities in Arkansas, Washington and Oregon hosting town halls in Springdale AR, Everett WA, Salem OR and officially opening the Marshallese Northwest Consulate in Portland OR. She addressed concerns about the residential status of FAS citizens in the U.S., deportation risks, claims to Ānen Kio (or Wake Island) currently administered by the U.S., cost of air transportation, passport and other identification, access to U.S. social services and scholarships through the RMI, and other changes to the economic terms of the Compact.

  • Click her to view the Consular presentation regarding passport and i94 documentation, identification needed for employment, access to U.S. social services such as SNAP, TANF, SSI and SSID.
  • Click here to read our report on Town Hall discussions including video recording (Marshallese) and written summary (English).
  • Click here to read H.E. President Heine’s keynote address at the 2025 Marshallese Women’s Conference organized by the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese and hosted by The Jones Center in Springdale, Arkansas in Marshallese and English.

H.E. President Hilda Heine met with Arkansas Congressman Steve Womack and Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson engaging in productive discussions on critical issues concerning the Compact of Free Association (COFA) and strengthening the relationship between the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the United States in the particular states with large Marshallese populations. She also meet with Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse, Community Clinic CEO Judd Semingston, and Springdale School District Deputy Superintendent. Among many courtesy meetings with U.S. state, local, and community leaders, the president’s delegation also meet with Marshallese employees and toured the Tyson facilities in Rogers, Arkansas and delivered the keynote remarks at the Marshallese Women’s Conference. She spoke about the critical role of Marshallese women in preserving cultural traditions, promoting education, and advancing community health. In the Northwest, the president and her delegation presided over the opening of the Marshallese Northwest Consulate in Portland, Oregon, and they attended church services at a local Marshallese congregation in Salem, Oregon. They were warmly received with songs, flowers and food as Northwest Consul General commented “respect is very important in Marshallese culture.”

Many compliments to the Office of the President, Republic of the Marshall Islands in providing the public with timely updates in Marshallese and English and photos. (The president greeted every person with iakwe and granted a photo opportunity to anyone who asked.) The Office of the President has published several of the President’s recent speeches in Marshallese and English as press releases posted to their official page on Facebook. President Heine’s Press Secretary confirmed that the president writes all her own speeches in Marshallese which her staff provides via press release on Facebook in Marshallese and English. A member of the Northwest Consulate staff remarked that “the president writes from her heart.”

H.E. President Hilda C. Heine earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon, a master’s degree at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa, and an educational doctorate from the University of Southern California. She was the first person from the Marshall Islands to get a doctorate. She served as president of the College of the Marshall Islands, Secretary of Education, director of policy and capacity building for Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, and co-founder of Jined Ilo Kobo, predecessor to Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI). She was elected president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in 2016. She served the full term despite a motion of no confidence in 2018 following a dispute regarding Rongelap Atoll. Later investigations revealed that some of her opponents in the motion had been bribed by developers who wished to use the atoll. The legislature voted for David Kabua as President in 2020, and after defeating Kabua in the selection process for the following term, Hilda C. Heine was once again elected president in 2024.

President Heine’s presidential administrations are remarkable for bringing back traditional matriarchal leadership to the modern nation state. At the reception of President Heine and her delegation in Salem, a Marshallese man attending the event explained to this reporter why President Heine’s leadership is special saying “the missionaries came and they taught the word of God but they changed things. Now things are rebalanced.” President Heine is the 8th and 10th president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the first female president of any Micronesian country and the fourth woman to serve as head of government for any independent Pacific nation.