As part of his efforts to crack down on immigration, President Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an obscure law that has been used sparingly throughout U.S. history to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime or an invasion.
The law was infamously invoked during World War II to hold Japanese-Americans in internment camps, with more than 2,000 people from San Diego incarcerated.
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The president of the local Japanese-American Historical Society, Kay Ochi, told NBC 7 on Monday that she hopes we can all learn from her family's story.
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Ochi's parents were incarcerated without due process.
“I'm still suffering for that," Ochis said. "I feel their pain.”
Ochi’s parents were married behind barbed wire at an internment camp in Arizona in the 1940s.
"They were part of the San Diegans who were all rounded up and forced out of their homes and lives for the war years,” Ochi said.
The government was able to do so using the Alien Enemies Act, which allows for deportation without due process during wartime.
“The power of the executive office, and one law, one dictate, can just really hurt generations and generations of people,” Ochi said.
Ochi said on Monday that she was aghast to see the law invoked again.
“I'm horrified because it's ancient, it's archaic — 1798,” Ochi said.
Over the weekend, Trump signed an executive action that is using the 227-year old law to push forward campaign promises of mass deportations, which have been slow on the uptake.
“On Day 1, I will launch the largest mass deportation program in American history,” Trump said during his campaign.
History is exactly what U.S. congressional Rep. Juan Vargas, who represents the southern portion of San Diego County, wants to see the Alien Enemies Act.
“It's been used to keep people out and expel people that, again, only for partisan or racist or antisemitic reasons,” Vargas said.
Vargas is part of a legislative push to repeal the 18-century law, with the new bill called the Neighbors Not Enemies Act.
Trump laid the groundwork to invoke the Alien Enemies Act when he declared a Venezuelan gang an "invading force."
“It doesn't apply here because we're not at war," Vargas said.
For Ochi, the present has striking parallels with the past, a shameful part of the American story that she hopes people will take the time to learn about so that history doesn’t repeat.
“Have we not, as people, as a culture, as a nation, realized that it's more important to treat people with dignity and respect than mass relocation or mass incarceration?” Ochi wondered aloud.
Vargas said he believes known gang members should be deported but that he's concerned about the law being used to target people who are not known criminals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report — Ed.
