Yesterday, I reported that Trump supporter Carl Higbie had appeared on Fox News’ The Kelly File to offer Japanese American incarceration (a note on language by the JACL) as a legal precedent for a national Muslim registry.
Last night, Higbie was invited back onto The Kelly File to clarify his statements (video after the jump).
In his second appearance, Higbie claims that the “dishonest media” are at fault for misinterpreting his previous point. He insists that when he referred to the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, he was not referring to Japanese American incarceration; instead, Higbie insists he was talking about supposed efforts by the federal government to register and surveil new Japanese immigrants.
There’s one problem with Higbie’s new attempt at spinning his earlier commentary: it has no basis in American history.
There was little or no new immigration from Japan into America during World War II — and thus no national registry of new Japanese immigrants. This is because two decades earlier, the 1924 Immigration Act had banned immigration from Asia and Africa.
By the time of World War II in the early 1940’s, there was no need to monitor the entry of new Japanese immigrants, because there was effectively no immigration between the US and Japan at the time.
So, if one is talking about Japanese Americans and World War II, one cannot possibly be talking about efforts to surveil and register new Japanese immigrants. Based on even a high school understanding of American history, one must be talking about Japanese American incarceration.
I don’t know what’s going on with Carl Higbie, but this attempt to pivot is truly embarrassing. Again, I’m reminded why #WeNeedAAPIStudies.
(Oh, and by the way, finish the segment out to watch Higbie accuse CAIR members of being terrorists. Seriously, though?)
