A Florida man who spent five days on the U.S. government’s list of “enemy combatants” in an effort to buy a house in Vermont has been ordered to pay back nearly $15,000 he got by booking a trip to Hawaii.
Joshua Coggin, 20, spent five weeks at the Department of Defense’s Hawaii detention facility before he landed at Dulles International Airport in March, according to court documents.
Coggin’s attorney, John R. Ritchie, said his client was forced to fly to Hawaii to get his passport renewed.
Cogs family and friends said he was going to help his family, who are in Hawaii, escape the state’s restrictive immigration laws.
He told his family that he was staying at a friend’s house in Hawaii for two months and then wanted to go back to California to visit family, Ritchie said.
He was able to get a job at a grocery store and rent an apartment in the suburb of Pahoa.
Coggs wife, Samantha, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last month she had to change her plans because she was staying in Pahoea.
The Honolulu Police Department said Cogges visa was revoked because he was on the list, but he had no prior criminal record.
He had a $2,500 outstanding debt from his previous job, the department said.