By Staff
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
To mark this year’s annual Day of Remembrance, grassroots advocacy organizations Tsuru for Solidarity and La Resistencia will hold a protest on Feb. 23 outside the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
The organizations will speak out against President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies, call for the closure of the Northwest ICE Processing Center, and ask that elected officials commit to protecting immigrants and refuse to expand detention centers in the state.
“With the inauguration of Donald Trump, threats against immigrants are becoming public policy,” Tsuru for Solidarity’s press release about the protest said. “Among other anti-immigrant policies, the President has threatened to revive the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which was the key authority behind the removal and incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II, to deport or detain recent immigrants.”
“As survivors and descendants of those incarcerated during WWII,” the press release continued, “we have the moral authority and the obligation to speak out against these actions. … We remind our elected officials that their silence and failure to use their power to stop the mass incarceration of immigrants today will be remembered in the same way we remember the public figures who allowed Japanese Americans to be put in camps during WWII.”
Among the speakers will be Mary Abo, a survivor of the Puyallup and Minidoka incarceration camps, who will speak about the importance of being an advocate. Author Tamiko Nimura, who penned “We Hereby Refuse,” will speak about the parallels between the Tule Lake incarceration camp and the Northwest ICE Processing Center.
Someone currently incarcerated inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center will be on a live feed to speak about the conditions within.
The protest will take place on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. outside the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
Tsuru for Solidarity will also hold a Day of Remembrance event at Hing Hay Park on Feb. 19. The event starts at 9:45 a.m., and will move from Hing Hay Park to Chiyo’s Garden, where Tsuru for Solidarity and La Resistencia will hold a press conference.