--- title: Rep. Mike Honda Slams Talk of Registry, Japanese Internment description: Rep. Mike Honda, who was forced into a Japanese internment camp, condemned a Donald Trump supporter's “precedent” comment for a registry. canonical: https://time.com/4575821/mike-honda-internment-camp-registry/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-17T22:58:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:26:29.424Z article:section: Politics og:title: Rep. Mike Honda, Who Lived Through Japanese Internment Camp, Condemns Immigrant Registry og:description: “This does not make American great" og:url: https://time.com/4575821/mike-honda-internment-camp-registry/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8040f54d7688b7f2/6988aefc196cf4487303e068/mike-honda.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Katrina Survivors Rally For Federal Assistance og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rep. Mike Honda, Who Lived Through Japanese Internment Camp, Condemns Immigrant Registry twitter:description: “This does not make American great" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8040f54d7688b7f2/6988aefc196cf4487303e068/mike-honda.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rep. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2794116d-e99e-4ba8-b62f-28dd57f78b58&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Nov 17, 2016 10:58 PM UTC  Rep. Mike Honda speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on March 14, 2006 in Washington, DC. Rep. Mike Honda speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on March 14, 2006 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Nov 17, 2016 10:58 PM UTC Congressman Mike Honda, who was [forced into a Japanese-American internment camp](http://time.com/4152095/rep-mike-honda-japanese-internment-camp/) as an infant during the World War II era, condemned recent remarks by a Donald Trump supporter who cited the camps as a “precedent” for an immigrant registry. Honda, 75, said in a [statement](http://capac-chu.house.gov/press-release/capac-condemns-trump-surrogate%E2%80%99s-comments-japanese-american-internment-precedent) Thursday that the [comments](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/politics/japanese-internment-muslim-registry.html) made on television by Carl Higbie are “beyond disturbing.” “This is fear, not courage. This is hate, not policy,” he said. “This does not make American great but would take us back to the bigotry of the 1940s. The Trump administration is showing they have not learned from our history when they suggest we go back to one of its darkest chapters.” The [outgoing](http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/us-rep/district/17/) California lawmaker spent the first few years of his life forcibly imprisoned at the Amache internment camp in Colorado with his family and thousands of others, beginning in 1942, he wrote in an op-ed for TIME last year. They lived behind barbed-wire fencing, he said. “No one should go through what my family and 120,000 innocent people suffered regardless of their race or religion or any other way they would choose to try and divide us,” Honda said Thursday. “Now today, I tell Mr. Trump that to reenact a policy fueled by prejudice is uncivilized, un-American and unworthy of a president sworn to uphold our Constitution.” Higbie made the suggestion during a Fox News interview on Thursday, while discussing the possibility of a national registry for immigrants from some countries. “We’ve done it based on race, we’ve done it based on religion, we’ve done it based on region,” he said. “We’ve done it with Iran back — back a while ago. 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