Japanese American internment is ‘precedent' for national Muslim registry, Trump backer says

A spokesman for a major super PAC backing President-elect Donald Trump said on national television that the mass internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was a “precedent” for plans to create of a database of Muslim immigrants.

Carl Higbie, a former Navy SEAL and a spokesman for the pro-Trump Great America PAC, discussed the plan to create a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries.

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Higbie, appearing on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show, said the proposal is legal and holds “constitutional muster.” The Washington Post reported that the registry proposal is being discussed by Trump’s immigration advisers.

"We've done it with Iran back a while ago. We did it during World War II with the Japanese," said Higbie.

"Come on, you're not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps, I hope," Kelly said.

"I'm not proposing that at all," Higbie said. "But I'm just saying there is precedent for it."

"That's the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl," Kelly replied.

Seattle group played a pivotal role in healing national wound of camps

A local historian writes that the incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast during World War II is one of the darkest chapters in our national history.

In early 1942, in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American communities in Washington, Oregon, and California were systematically dismantled by the federal government by order of President Roosevelt.

In the aftermath, decades after the war had ended, a loosely affiliated group of Seattle residents played a pivotal role in helping to partially heal the national wound of internment, culminating in the signing of the Civil Liberties Act by President Ronald Reagan in early August 1988.

Seattle is still inhabited by the spirits or the ghosts of these events," said Frank Abe, a former journalist and a longtime activist in the Japanese-American community. Before Abe was born, his father was held during the war at Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming.

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Abe said that local places like the Puyallup Fairgrounds in Pierce County, where Puget Sound area Japanese-Americans were taken temporarily before being relocated to inland internment camps, still resonate with echoes of the area’s dark past.

“Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Puyallup Fairgrounds go about their enjoyment every September, and a few of them realize that the parking lots and the racetrack were the site of barracks that housed thousands of souls in hastily constructed tar-paper barracks,” Abe said.

The grassroots movement to seek a formal apology and reparations from the government, or “redress,” began somewhat organically in Seattle around 1970. Read about that movement in full here.

As a result of the movement, each person was incarcerated during World War II received a check for $20,000 and a letter of apology signed by President Bill Clinton.

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The actual monetary losses of Japanese-Americans are nearly incalculable and were far greater than $20,000 per person, it wasn’t about the money, says Frank Abe.

“What was more important was the apology, for the government to say it was sorry, and it was wrong to do that,” Abe said. “Redress was also about history. It was a chance to reverse three decades of just not talking about it, and it was a chance to bring awareness of the shared history and help bring out the Nisei generation that had suppressed its anger and rage at the injustice for 30 years.”

Seattle immigrants' rights leaders on Trump

Western Washington immigrant rights groups discussed what they call a "path forward" on the day that Donald Trump started his transition into the presidency.

Trump promised of mass deportations and restrictions on immigration throughout his campaign.

>> Seattle immigrants' rights leaders on Trump: 'It's wrong our children experience fear and trauma'

Across the nation, immigration leaders have voiced fears of raids on illegal immigrants, possible abuse of process and increased detentions.

Local leaders gathered Thursday around a podium at Seattle's El Centro De La Raza to say that their movement for immigrant and refugee rights will continue its mission of a safe, welcoming America for all.

Local leaders on immigration status

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said after Election Day that despite the views held by President-elect Trump, Seattle would remain a welcoming city for immigrants, minorities and others.

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The policies of the Seattle Police Department regarding immigration status will not change, Chief Kathleen O’Toole said in a written statement Tuesday.

“Complainants, witnesses and victims are encouraged to communicate with Seattle Police officers without fear of inquiry regarding their immigration status,” O’Toole wrote.

>> SPD Chief: Policies on immigration status won't change

The chief said she’s heard from concerned community members fearful of SPD policies and said she and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray remain “committed to values of equality, inclusion and openness.”

King County Sheriff John Urquhart also said his deputies “don't want anybody to be afraid to talk to us.”

The comments come after President-elect Donald Trump said he wants to deport illegal immigrants who are criminals.

"What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate," Trump said on '60 Minutes."

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