The united states should not be detaining citizens in wartime

Citizens as Enemy Combatants The war on terror has brought forward many questions of due process. Inthe Supreme Court dealt with the case of a U. The man had been held incommunicado with no charges filed against him. Yaser Esam Hamdi is an American citizen.

Visit Website On December 7,just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded-up 1, Japanese community and religious leaders, arresting them without evidence and freezing their assets. In January, the arrestees were transferred to facilities in MontanaNew Mexico and North Dakotamany unable to inform their families and most remaining for the duration of the war.

Concurrently, the FBI searched the private homes of thousands of Japanese residents on the West Coast, seizing items considered contraband.

In a panic, some politicians called for their mass incarceration. Japanese-owned fishing boats were impounded. Some Japanese residents were arrested and 1, people—one percent of the Japanese population in Hawaii—were sent to camps on the U.

DeWitt, leader of the Western Defense Command, believed that the civilian population needed to be taken control of to prevent a repeat of Pearl Harbor.

To argue his case, DeWitt prepared a report filled with known falsehoods, such as examples of sabotage that were later revealed to be the result of cattle damaging power lines. His original plan included Italians and Germans, though the idea of rounding-up European-descent Americans was not as popular.

At Congressional hearings in Februarya majority of the testimonies, including those from California Governor Culbert L.

Biddle pleaded with the president that mass evacuation of citizens was not required, preferring smaller, more targeted security measures. Regardless, Roosevelt signed the order. Inland state citizens were not keen for new Japanese residents, and they were met with racist resistance. Ten state governors voiced opposition, fearing the Japanese might never leave, and demanded they be locked up if the states were forced to accept them.

A civilian organization called the War Relocation Authority was set up in March to administer the plan, with Milton S. Eisenhower, from the Department of Agriculture, to lead it. Eisenhower only lasted until Juneresigning in protest over what he characterized as incarcerating innocent citizens.

People had six days notice to dispose of their belongings other than what they could carry. Japanese Americans reported to centers near their homes. From there they were transported to a relocation center where they might live for months before transfer to a permanent wartime residence.

These centers were located in remote areas, often reconfigured fairgrounds and racetracks featuring buildings not meant for human habitation, like horse stalls or cow sheds, that had been converted for that purpose.

The Santa Anita Assembly Center, just several miles northeast of Los Angeles, was a de-facto city with 18, interred, 8, of whom lived in stables. Food shortages and substandard sanitation were prevalent in these facilities.

Jobs ranged from doctors to teachers to laborers and mechanics. A couple of assembly centers were the sites of camouflage net factories, which provided work. There were opportunities for farm work during a labor shortage, and over 1, internees were sent to other states to do seasonal farm work.

Over 4, internees were allowed to leave to attend college.

Typically some form of barracks, several families were housed together, with communal eating areas. Residents that were designated as dissidents went to a special camp in Tule Lake, California.

Two relocation centers in Arizona were located on Indian reservations, despite the protests of tribal councils, who were overruled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Each relocation center was its own town, featuring schools, post offices and work facilities, as well as farmland for growing food and keeping livestock, all surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers.

Net factories offered work at several relocation centers. One housed a naval ship model factory.

There were also factories in different centers that manufactured items for use in other centers, including garments, mattresses and cabinets. Several centers had agricultural processing plants.

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In Lordsburg, New Mexico, internees were delivered by trains and marched two miles at night to the camp. An elderly man attempted to flee and was shot and killed.

After settling in, at least two men were shot and killed while trying to escape. On August 4,a riot broke out in the Santa Anita facility, the result of anger about insufficient rations and overcrowding.ment of the United States is detaining him, an American citizen on American soil, with the explanation that he was citizens fiexcept pursuant to an Act of Congress,fl is that the statute does not even apply to military wartime deten-tions, being beyond the sphere of domestic criminal law.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066

United States) challenging their indefinite detention as "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In response to the defendants' claims, the government argues that the courts do not have. Roosevelt's order affected , people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom were native-born citizens of the United States.

The Issei were the first generation of Japanese in this country; the Nisei were the second generation, numbering 70, American citizens at the time of internment.

Jul 18,  · Still, the two lawmakers agreed about something else: the United States should not take custody of the hundreds of other accused foreign fighters. Instead, their own governments should step up.

Internment of Japanese Americans - Wikipedia

Oct 29,  · Watch video · Executive Order affected the lives about , people—the majority of whom were American citizens. Canada soon followed suit, relocating 21, of its Japanese residents from its west coast. We therefore favor legislation that would clarify that military detention in counterterrorism under the AUMF is not available with respect to any persons–whether United States citizens or aliens.