I was struck by the contrast between the beauty of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains, and the desolation of the dust-filled desert landscape, when I visited the Manzanar National Historical Site earlier this year. This was one of 10 U.S. military camps that incarcerated over 120,000 Japanese Americans – two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens – for up to four years during World War II. Under the authority of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, Japanese Americans were forced to abandon their homes, businesses, and all their possessions, without being charged with any crimes, and without any individual hearings or trials.
Executive Order 9066 is personally meaningful to me because nearly 60 years later, I was privileged to be in the Oval Office to witness President Bill Clinton sign Executive Order 13125, establishing a White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, an executive order that I had conceived of, drafted the text for, and spent a year and a half advocating for. It was an important milestone for our Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, when the power of the Presidency through executive orders was not used to deny our constitutional rights, but to call on the federal government to lift up our communities’ collective dreams as part of the evolving story of our diverse country.
Today, 100 days into his second Administration, President Donald Trump has issued over 130 executive orders, from hyperbolic orders about national emergencies and border security and energy independence, to trivial and almost petty orders about paper straws and shower head water pressure. One of the first inauguration day executive orders issued rescinded prior executive orders expanding federal prohibitions against discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, and gender identity – and oh, terminated that White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (which had been continued by every president, including the first Trump Administration).
One notable executive order seeks to re-interpret the 14th Amendment and reverse the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship: that everyone born in this country, including those enslaved, is a citizen. The three nationwide preliminary injunctions against that executive order will be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in mid-May.
Meanwhile other executive orders and actions have sent 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, closed off refugee resettlement and opportunities to seek asylum, and terminated temporary immigration status for Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans, Afghans, and Cameroonians. More alarming have been the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants without hearings, the use of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to detain immigrants, removals to third countries, and arrests by masked immigration agents with unmarked cars. The Internal Revenue Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Social Security Administration, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have all opened up their databases to share information with the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate additional immigration enforcement activities.
Other executive orders seek to re-interpret any “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) program or activity as illegal race-based discrimination, and any recognition or legal protections for transgender individuals as illegal “gender ideology”. That executive order seeks to declare by Presidential fiat that gender identity does not exist. Federal employees have been fired and entire offices shut down, and federal grants and contracts have been frozen and terminated for work allegedly related to DEI and/or gender ideology.
Among the billions of dollars in federal grants terminated are those archiving documentation about the forced removal of Native American children into boarding schools. Any protest or dissenting word about the war in Gaza and the mass civilian casualties among Palestinians is being re-interpreted as anti-Semitism. Another executive order seeks to eradicate “anti-Christian bias” from the federal government. A new Muslim ban on visitors and immigrants from countries with predominantly Muslim populations is being drafted.
Other executive orders and actions have targeted law firms for DEI activities (and pro bono work on behalf of immigrant clients); universities for not doing enough against anti-Semitism, as well as DEI activities; and most recently, the entire state of Maine for continuing to implement a state law protecting discrimination against transgender athletes.
What may seem to be unconnected executive orders and actions on distinct issues are in fact part of an intentional effort to undermine the fundamental institutions and principles of our constitutional democracy, including free speech, equal protection, due process, and the rule of law. The Trump Administration’s attacks on LGBTQ people, immigrants, Native Americans, communities of color, women, Muslims, Palestinians, and others are all part of a broader effort to deny us our civil and human rights, and terminate all federal funding that supports us as individuals, families, and communities. More insidiously, the executive actions seek to re-write our history, silence our voices, and erase our identities. We all need to heed the words of Audre Lorde: “there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
In 1895, 22-year-old Chinese American Wong Kim Ark challenged the federal government’s claim that he was not a U.S. citizen even though he was born in San Francisco – and he won at the U.S. Supreme Court three years later. In the 1940s, Japanese Americans Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Minori Yasui challenged the military orders for their incarceration. While they each lost their legal cases at U.S. Supreme Court, forty years later, when evidence of the military’s falsification of the supposed national security threat posed by Japanese Americans was discovered, their legal cases were re-opened, and their convictions vacated.
Today, we also must stand up against these executive orders and actions. Immigrants, transgender military service members, transgender youth and their families, law firms, universities, and many others are challenging these executive orders and actions in courts across the country.
I am proud to support NCLR in its vital work at the forefront of this resistance. We need to do everything we can to support all the courageous individuals who are plaintiffs in these legal challenges – and their lawyers, including NCLR – in this collective fight for the future of our democracy.
Ignatius Bau has had a 40-year career advocating for the rights of immigrants and refugees, communities of color, and LGBTQ people; one of the things he is most proud of is being a long-time donor to NCLR.
