Trump PAC Spokesperson Cites Japanese Internment Camps as Precedent for Muslim Registry

By Kenrya Rankin Nov 17, 2016

From 1942 to 1946, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the Pacific Coast were forced to relocate to 10 internment camps in other parts of the country. Imprisoned to soothe those who harbored racist worries that they would sabotage the nation’s World War II effort following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, survivors were eventually awarded reparations in 1988.

So when Carl Higbie, spokesperson for the Great America PAC, told FOX News host Megan Kelly that the concentration camps set the legal precedent for President-Elect Donald Trump’s proposed Muslim registry, she stopped him immediately.

“Come on. You’re not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps, I hope,” Kelly said. “You know better to suggest that. I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl.”

Higbie initially denied that he feels policies reminiscent of the internment camps are viable, but closed by saying, “Look, the president needs to protect America first, and if that means having people that are not protected under our Constitution have some sort of registry so we can understand—until we can identify the true threat and where it’s coming from, I support it.”

Watch the full exchange below.

 

(H/t Reuters, NBC News)