Credit: Dean Cain/ Instagram
Dean Cain, the actor best known for portraying Superman in the 1990s television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, said this week that he is joining U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to support President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown.
Cain, 59, made the announcement in a video posted to social media this week that he is “a sworn law enforcement officer, as well as being a filmmaker. I felt it was important to join with our first responders to help secure the safety of all Americans, not just talk about it.”
He continued, “Since President Trump took office, ICE has arrested hundreds of thousands of criminals including terrorists, rapists, murderers, pedophiles, MS-13, gang members, drug traffickers… ICE is arresting the worst of the worst, and removing them from America’s streets. I like that. I voted for that. They need your help… we need your help to protect our homeland and our families.”
Someone with the username gabriellamarie6 commented, “This is incredibly ironic coming from a direct descendant of Japanese immigrants who were held in internment camps during WWII.”
Cain was born Dean George Tanaka in Michigan. His birth father, Roger Tanaka, was of Japanese American heritage. His mother later married film director Christopher Cain, who adopted Dean. Cain’s announcement has sparked backlash from immigrant rights groups and critics who point to his age—well above the traditional cutoff of 37 for ICE recruits—as well as the optics of a television superhero aligning with a federal agency criticized for its aggressive immigration tactics.
Cain starred as Clark Kent/Superman in Lois & Clark from 1993 to 1997. In recent years, he has appeared on conservative media outlets and supported various law enforcement and veterans’ causes.
He is half Japanese American/Asian and half white. This lets him benefit from proximity to whiteness in a way a fully Asian man could not and allowed him to become a movie star. Several of his relatives were sent to WWII internment camps, yet he now aligns with the same kinds of policies favored by those who would be racist toward his Asian side. Out of insecurity, he leans into his white half to distance himself from his Asian heritage and gain acceptance from those very people.
Dean Tanaka (Cain) has taken a stop away from history.