Seattle Japanese American Community Urges Action From Elected Officials Over Immigration Enforcement

Over 100 community members invited local elected officials to attend a town hall where they highlighted the parallels between the incarceration of the Japanese American community during World War II and the detention of immigrants today.

While no elected leaders attended, staff representatives from the offices of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, U.S. Rep Pramila Jayapal, Gov. Bob Ferguson, and Mayor Bruce Harrell, listened to testimony of those with lived experience or who were descendants of Japanese American detention in the 1940s and those currently affected by the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) or current immigration policies.

Tsuru for Solidarity, the lead organization behind the event, was started by elders who were incarcerated during WWII and their descendants, when the U.S. government forcibly relocated and incarcerated people of Japanese descent following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The group's goal is to "stop history from repeating itself."

"The echoes of that experience still resonate within the Japanese American community and within my memory and my family," said Stanley Shikuma, a Beacon Hill resident whose parents were incarcerated.

Community members urged elected officials to take action by ending the contract renewal with the GEO Group, the private detention company operating the NWIPC; ending ICE flights out of King County International Airport; prohibiting collaboration between the Department of Corrections and ICE; and reinstating funding for worker protections at the state and local level.

Elders recalled the mass removal of Japanese Americans from their homes and detailed their experiences of being incarcerated at a young age. They described the inhumane conditions they faced, such as being fed poor-quality food and the lack of sanitation and medical care, as similar to the experiences people are facing at the NWIPC.

Additionally, Shikuma described the laws, policies, and rhetoric the government used regarding Japanese Americans, such as the Alien Enemies Act, as similar to what's used toward immigrants today.

"'They're dangerous, they're all criminals, they're a national security threat' — those are all things that were said about the Japanese," he said.

In some ways, Shikuma said what's going on today is worse and raised concerns over ICE agents arresting people without identifying themselves, the lack of oversight over the health and sanitary conditions at the NWIPC, and racial profiling used to detain people.

For Kri Yamada, it's difficult for her to witness the same abuses that were inflicted upon her ancestors happening to immigrant communities today.

Her dad's side of the family is from Seattle's Japantown, and her mother's side of the family is from the Auburn/Kent area. They were incarcerated for three years at several concentration camps throughout the western U.S., including at the Puyallup Assembly Center.

Yamada's great-grandfather owned a restaurant called The Coffee Cup, which was located in Seattle at 2nd and Madison and served about 1,200 people daily during lunch alone. After being forcibly removed, he never regained the restaurant. Yamada said she grieves for immigrants who are seeing what they've built be taken away, just like her great-grandfather's restaurant.

"The livelihoods and communities they have worked and fought hard for, spent their blood, sweat, and tears to build here, are being lost and stolen today," Yamada said. "All that, they too, will not get back."

At the state level, Washington passed the Keep Washington Working Act in 2019, which limits the ability of local law enforcement to share information and collaborate with federal immigration enforcement.

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Ferguson and Harrell threatening to withhold federal funding and potentially criminally prosecute elected officials if they failed to cooperate with immigration enforcement. Ferguson responded in a press conference, saying the state "will not be bullied or intimidated."

The state has also passed several immigrants' rights laws this year, including ones that allow the state's Department of Health to conduct inspections at the NWIPC, protect immigrants from coercion in the workplace, and use paid sick time for immigration proceedings.

Vince Schleitwiler, a Beacon Hill community member who spoke at the event, emphasized to elected officials the courage immigrant communities face, such as an immigrant mother going to a grocery store, not knowing if she'll return for dinner with her citizen children.

"If you can find a fraction of the impossible courage that our neighbors and family need just to go about their lives, then all the sensible-sounding reasons for inaction will melt away, and the simple demands we present to you will just be a start," Schleitwiler said.