A Japanese-American born in a California internment camp during World War II is pushing back against U.S. President Donald Trump's travel restrictions that mostly target individuals from several Muslim-majority countries.

"It's easy to issue a presidential order, but it would take many, many years to repeal it," said Takeshi Furumoto, speaking at a recent event in New York marking 30 years since the U.S. government apologized to Japanese-Americans forcibly relocated during World War II.

The 73-year-old realtor and Vietnam War veteran, who had business ties with Trump in the 1980s, compares the president's travel ban to President Franklin Roosevelt's executive order in 1942 that led to the incarceration of some 120,000 U.S. civilians of Japanese descent in more than 10 remote camps across the country.