Stop Comparing Trump’s Executive Order To The Japanese Internment

Stop Comparing Trump’s Executive Order To The Japanese Internment

I have lost count of the number of people I have seen posting everywhere on social media who are now immigration law experts. (Everyone apparently has been sleeping at Holiday Inn Express hotels, I guess.) If you listen to any number of protestors, politicians, or activists, there is an oft-repeated comparison: This is the “darkest day” in immigration since the Japanese internment camps.

As someone whose family was interned in those camps, let me just say…. NO. STOP, NOW. THIS IS NOT ANYTHING LIKE THAT.

First of all, no one seems to know what the ACTUAL wording of Executive Order 9066 really was. This was the entire crux of that order:

Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order.

Notice what is not in this paragraph – and actually never is mentioned in the entirety of the executive order? The word “Japanese.” To put it bluntly, if FDR had gotten it into his head to ban all redheads from whatever newly-created “military area” had been designated, this EO would have given him the power to do that. That’s how wide sweeping EO 9066 could have been interpreted. How widespread is Trump’s executive order? It covers seven countries of origin. Now, you can agree or disagree with the EO that Trump signed, but the criteria of who is actually being prohibited from traveling to the United States is significantly more specific than “any or all persons” that a Cabinet Secretary or Military Commander decides needs to be “excluded.”

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