JANM Condemns Proposal to Invoke Alien Enemies Act to Enforce Mass Deportations

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) condemns the former President’s proposal to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to enforce mass deportations of migrants without due process. That law permits deporting people from countries with which the US is at war and that have invaded the US. In 1941, President Roosevelt used it to arrest and detain citizens of Japan, Germany, and Italy without due process in Department of Justice internment camps. In 1942 he expanded the scope of his wartime powers to issue Executive Order 9066, leading to the mass incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry.

“This baseless proposal is fueled by the same dangerous rhetoric that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Alien Land Laws, internment of Japanese, Germans, and Italians, and the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. The lessons learned from that chapter in American history are as relevant and urgent as ever before and should not be ignored,” said Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO.

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