From Christine Tsubokura

Mineral Point

To the Editor:

This is personal.

I am upset with the deportations of Venezuelans alleged to be gang members. Like most Americans, I am not in favor of offering safe haven to gang members and criminals.  In America, we have something called the RULE OF LAW to determine if they are gang members based on evidence and if found guilty, to incarcerate or deport. Our country  must not support “disappearing” people without due process or just cause.

Why is this personally upsetting to me? My grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Japan and were farmers raising six children. My grandfather was disappeared in 1942 because he was on the board of a Japanese language school without any evidence of wrong doing. Then other members of the family were sent to relocation camps. My one Aunt who spent her teenage years in one, says it is more accurate to call them “concentration camps”.

This was all done under the Alien Act of 1798, the same act President Trump is using today. These actions were later declared the biggest disgrace and  stain on our Democracy by both Republican President’s Reagan and Bush.

After “camp” my grandparents’ children all went to college and became professionals, two uncles joined the U.S. military and served. The Japanese were determined to be seen as loyal, so much so, my parents wouldn’t send me to Japanese language school but instead to baton twirling lessons so I could march in loyalty day parades!

Why should this also be personal to you? When any President has the power to disappear people without evidence, denying the RULE OF LAW and due process, it makes us ALL VULNERABLE. Once you forego the legitimate process, the flood gates open to make every person, even U.S. citizens, vulnerable to a knock on the door!

It happened before and it can and will happen again without all of us being clear eyed, united, outraged and taking some action.