Trump Supporter Cites Japanese Internment 'Precedent' in Backing Muslim Registry

By Mark Abadi and Maxwell Tani, Business Insider

17 November 16

 

egyn Kelly admonished a supporter of Donald Trump who invoked Japanese internment camps as precedent for a proposed registry of Muslims.

On Fox News's "The Kelly File" program on Wednesday night, Carl Higbie, a former Navy SEAL and spokesman and co-chair of Great America PAC for Donald Trump, argued in favor of the registry, which he compared to World War II-era Japanese internment camps.

Policy advisers to President-elect Donald Trump are reportedly considering creating a registry of immigrants who come to the United States from Muslim countries, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who reportedly is a "key member of Trump's transition team," told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We did it during World War II with Japanese, which you know, call it what you will, may be wrong," Higbie said, eliciting a sharp response from Kelly.

"You know better than to suggest that," Kelly said. "That's the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl."

"I'm just saying there is precedent for it," Higbie replied.

"You can't be citing Japanese internment camps for anything the President-elect is going to do," Kelly fired back in a raised voice.

Watch the exchange below:

Trump surrogates are already citing Japanese internment camps from WW II as "precedent" for Muslim registry pic.twitter.com/DVnjtom0mc

— Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) November 17, 2016

During World War II, more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry were relocated and incarcerated for years following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

Largely considered one of the most egregious civil liberties violations in American history, thousands of American citizens, many of them children, were forced to sleep in overcrowded, converted barracks and even horse stalls with no running water. Families' assets were seized, and while many returned after the war to find their homes defaced and destroyed, others found their small businesses and industries co-opted by permanent residents, and were forced to find less appealing work.

Japanese-American lawmakers lobbied for years for a formal apology, and in 1991, former US President George H.W. Bush issued one in conjunction with the federal government's reparations payments to Japanese-Americans, saying that the US should "recognize that serious injustices were done."

"A monetary sum and words alone cannot restore lost years or erase painful memories; neither can they fully convey our nation's resolve to rectify injustice and to uphold the rights of individuals," Bush said. "We can never fully right the wrongs of the past, but we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during WW II."

Trump has expressed support for a Muslim registry during his campaign for president.

Wednesday’s interview wasn't the first time Trump and his campaign surrogates speculated about whether Japanese internment camps and bans on specific races before and during World War II presented a precedent for a potential Muslim registry and ban.

Last year, Trump said that although he did not necessarily support Japanese internment camps, he would "have had to be there at the time" to decide whether it was justified for then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt to violate the US constitution by quarantining over 100,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans without cause.

New Hampshire state Rep. Al Baldasaro, who co-chaired Trump's veterans coalition, defended the real-estate mogul, arguing affirmatively for internment camps.

"What he's saying is no different than the situation during World War II, when we put the Japanese in camps," Baldasaro said in an interview during the campaign. "The people who attacked innocent people in Paris came through open borders. From a military mind standpoint, all Donald Trump is saying is to do what needs to be done until we get a handle on how to do background checks."