Washington– The congressman returned home last July 4th to amazing stories in Southern California Immigration patrols He swept into local communities and was told by a constituent about starting to carry a passport as proof of the right to be in the country.
Rep. Mark Takanowhose American-born parents were imprisoned when they were young children along with their families during the war Forced deportation to Japanese Americans during World War III can’t help but see the similarities between this chapter of American history and this one.
“I feel like there is a similarity in circumstances, where my 2-year-old father and 1-year-old mother are classified as enemy aliens and considered a national security risk,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.
“They were put in these concentration camps,” he said. “This administration has made similar arguments — that immigrants pose a grave danger to our country and that we do this for our country’s security.”
President Donald Trump The biggest campaign promise Mass deportation The history of the United States is at a turning point. Americans see what it looks like round up, Detention and deportation Thousands of people, especially in the wake of deaths this year Rene is good and Alex PrettyAmerican citizens protest these measures In Minneapolis.
The white house Changed leadership in Department of Homeland Security While reshaping its approach. new Secretary Markwayne Mullen He promised to keep the section off the front pages.
But Trump is also under rule Installation pressure Conservative groups should not abandon the goal of deporting 1 million people a year. The president’s Republican allies in Congress are fueling immigration and deportation measures Billions of dollars In special boxes.
Takano, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has drawn on his family history — and the compensation the country eventually provided to Japanese Americans who were interned — to challenge Trump’s approach.
He said: “We view that era in history as a shameful era, as a time when our political leaders failed the Constitution and failed the American people.”
A former high school history teacher before being elected to Congress in 2012, Takano grew up in Southern California and understands family stories.
His grandfather, Isao Takano, arrived in the United States from Hiroshima and married Kazuo Takahashi, an American-born citizen. Together they settled in Bellevue, Washington, and launched a business growing tomatoes, strawberries, and chrysanthemums for the Seattle market.
When the United States entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, they were among about 120,000 people of Japanese descent, immigrants and those born in the United States. She was forcibly transferred.
His father, William, was two years old when, in 1942, his family was sent to a concentration camp in Tule Lake In california. His mother, Nancy Tsuji Sakamoto, born in California to US-born parents, was one year old when she was taken to the detention center in (Heart Mountain, Wyoming)..
Then, as now, people are being held in anti-immigrant detention centers, he added.
“Will generations of Americans from now on visit Alcatraz and think to themselves, ‘How could our government do that?’ Takano said during a speech in the House of Representatives, referring to immigration in the Trump era Detention facility In Florida.
“These future generations of Americans will look to us, Congress, to see what we did to try to stop it.”
Takano remembers his father taking him to see the land the family once owned. Learn about his great uncles who served Army 442nd Regimental Combat Team of Japanese American soldiers; One of them was killed in action in Italy. He recalls that his father later collected donations for the National Redress Campaign.
In 1988, Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, which sought to apologize for the “gross injustice” that had occurred and awarded $20,000 to each person detained. Republican President Ronald Reagan signed it into law.
He said Takano’s parents were among those who received a letter of apology from the federal government as well as a sum of money.
He said talks are underway among some in Congress for similar compensation for people who had their car windows smashed, their homes raided and their livelihoods upended as part of Trump’s immigration enforcement operations.
“It is remarkable that the country realized the mistake,” he said. “I think we are going through a period of mistakes and I think we can come out of this moment stronger.”