Senators Decry Internment Talk
Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono condemn remarksby a Trump supporter that the WWII camps could be a“precedent” for a registry of Muslim immigrants.
A prominent supporter of Donald Trump “set off concern and condemnation” from Muslims Wednesday after citing World War II-era Japanese-American internment camps as a “precedent” for an immigrant registry.
As , the suggestion camefrom a member of the president-elect’s transition team.
“The supporter, Carl Higbie, a former spokesman for Great America PAC, an independent fund-raising committee, made the comments in an appearance on “The Kelly File” on Fox News,” says the Times.
“We’ve done it based on race, we’ve done it based on religion, we’ve done it based on region,” Higbie said. “We’ve done it with Iran back — back a while ago. We did it during World War II with Japanese.”
Trump’s team a Muslim registry.
But Hawaii’s two U.S. senators, both Democrats, are outraged.
Said Hirono, who is Japanese American:
“The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was a historic injustice and nothing like it should ever happen again. The protection of our Constitution is not conditional; it applies to all of us. We cannot allow hate speech, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiment to become the new norm in our country, and we must continue to speak out against hate and prejudice. An inclusive and vibrant America is worth fighting for.”
Said Schatz:
“The internment of Japanese Americans was a dark chapter in our history. We should remember it and never repeat the same injustice.Any suggestion that the classification of thousands of Japanese, Germans, and Italians during the World War II as ‘enemy aliens’ should be used as a precedent is immoral and must be rejected by all Americans.”
Hawaii has a large Japanese-American population.
While most internment camps werelocated onthe mainland, there were also camps in the islands.
We must continue to speak out against hate & prejudice – we will not stand silent until it’s our turn
— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono)
The internment of Japanese Americans more than 70 years ago set a precedent: that we should never let something like this happen again. — Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono)
