I was afraid this day would come. The day where I’d have to sit with my 15-year-old son, Kai, to teach him his rights in case ICE raids his school.
Just after the inauguration, the Huntington Beach City Council unanimously agreed to ignore California’s sanctuary law. Local law enforcement are being ordered to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, invoking fear for the immigrant community working and living in the Orange County beach city.
As a 4th generation (Yonsei) Japanese American who grew up in Huntington Beach, I can draw parallels between today’s mass immigration raids and the unjust incarceration of 120,000+ Japanese Americans – a majority of whom were U.S. citizens – under Executive Order 9066.
- Framing communities as threats to public safety
- Targeting communities based on immigration status
- Establishing camps or centers to hold targeted communities
- Separating families with little to no legal recourse
Whether it’s Japanese Americans during World War ll; Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities post 9/11; or the immigrant community in Trump’s America, marginalized communities have and continue to endure the impacts of xenophobic scapegoating.
Today, for Remembrance Day, I remember my grandparents who survived the camps to tell their tale. They played baseball, dressed in the best fashions of the day, and even joined the army just for that chance at the American dream.
In the end, my grandparents were never seen as American enough. Because we know it’s not the targeted communities, but the hateful policies that are the true threat to our lives. We’ve seen it then, and we can see it now.
I stressed this point to Kai, who was initially confused by my urgency, along with the Fifth Amendment and the right to remain silent. As I dropped him off at school, right across the street from Huntington Beach City Hall, I could see beneath his calm exterior a level of caution and awareness that wasn’t there before.
It’s time to stay vigilant, Know Your Rights, and make sure your loved ones know their rights.
It’s going to take all of us to resist what’s arrived before us. Because what history tells us is, when we mobilize and fight together, we can persist and create a brighter future for the future generations to come.
With Strength and Solidarity,
Darin Tokunaga
Director of Finance and Administration
