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Concerns grow after Trump ally cites Japanese-American internment as precedent for Muslim registry

Shigeho Kitamoto and her four children are forcibly relocated along with others from Bainbridge Island, Washington, in March 1942 as part of the U.S. government's internment of people with Japanese ancestry. | AP

By Jesse Johnson
Staff Writer

Nov 21, 2016

One of the darkest periods in American history was thrown into stark relief in recent days after a surrogate to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said a proposal for a Muslim immigrant registry had precedent in the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans.

Citing the 1942-1946 forced relocation of Americans of Japanese descent into what effectively amounted to concentration camps as a legal precedent, Carl Higbie, a former spokesman for the pro-Trump Great America PAC, said that a registry of immigrants from Muslim nations deemed terrorist havens would "hold constitutional muster."

Higbie was referring to a proposal by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, reportedly a member of Trump's transition team, that would reinstate a George W. Bush-era registry for immigrants from Muslim nations.

Concerns grow after Trump ally cites Japanese-American internment as precedent for Muslim registry

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