SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Nov. 21, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, who is of mixed-Japanese descent, expressed concern Monday about comments by fellow Trump supporters that justify the creation of a national Muslim registry by citing the Japanese internment during World War II as legal precedent.
Reyes, who this summer expressed his support for Donald Trump, pointed out in the statement that some of his own family and friends were placed in the internment camps during World War II.
The statement was posted on Reyes’ website Monday morning.
It reads: When President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act in 1988, apologizing for the Japanese internment World War II, it was a significant acknowledgment of the humiliation, degradation, and pain suffered by thousands in the Japanese-American community, including some of my own friends and family. These were loyal American citizens stripped of their rights, freedom, and hard-earned property based solely on heritage.
Reference to the Japanese internment as a legal prerogative for any policy is offensive and counter to the highest ideals to which we aspire as a nation. I join President-elect Donald Trump in rejecting the idea that anyone would promote such a tragedy in any form. I would have similar concerns about registries created and maintained by the government based on the religion of American citizens.
Like many Americans, I am gravely concerned about national security and the threat of radical groups that would do us harm. And, collectively, we will continue to grapple with difficult decisions balancing the safety of our country and the liberties to which we are all entitled. The justification for whatever policies we adopt cannot be rooted in the Japanese internment or any of the other darkest mistakes in our nation’s history, from slavery and segregation to sterilization and extermination. These are not the ideals of a free people.
