Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invoked the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798, leading to the arrest of thousands of West Coast Issei men and their wartime detention in Army and INS facilities in an internment process that was distinct from the incarceration of nearly 127,000 persons of Japanese ancestry under Executive Order 9066. In the spring of 2025, President Donald J. Trump invoked this act against alleged Tren de Aragua members on the basis that this Venezuelan gang has “invaded” the United States, spawning a blizzard of litigation over this Trump administration’s assertion of authority in immigration policy and practices.

This panel will address how this act was applied to and impacted the Japanese American wartime community, ramifications of the current administration’s approaches, the status of the court cases challenging the administration’s use of AEA, and the amicus brief that was filed on behalf of descendants of Issei men who were imprisoned when the AEA was invoked in World War II. The speakers also will discuss how to accurately and effectively speak about the lessons from history when communities, especially those of color, live under the specter and reality of arrest, detention, and deportation.

Moderator: Susan H. Kamei, adjunct professor (teaching) of history, and affiliate faculty, USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture

This is a hybrid event. Please click here to register for the Zoom link. Click here to RSVP for the in-person event.

Panelists:

• Robert S. Chang, Professor of Law, Sylvia Mendez Presidential Chair for Civil Rights, and Executive Director, UC Irvine School of Law Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality
• traci kato-kiriyama, artist and activist
• Kathy Masaoka, Co-Chair, Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, and leader, Nikkei Progressives
• Brian Niiya, Content Director, Densho
• Jean Reisz, Co-Director, USC Immigration Clinic, and Clinical Associate Professor of Law, USC Gould School of Law

This event is co-sponsored by Densho, the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at UCI,  Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Nikkei Progressives, and the USC Immigration Clinic.