What does an American Look Like?

In 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the incarceration of Mitsuye Endo and 120,000 other Americans of Japanese ancestry. She became a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU to strike down her incarceration as unconstitutional. Despite governmental offers of an early release, Endo remained in camp in order for the case to make it to the Supreme Court. Her victory led to the release of the prisoners in 1945. Fast forward to 2017 when we have witnessed President Trump sign first Executive Order 13769 and then Executive Order 13780, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” These discriminatory “Muslim bans” echoed Executive Order 9066, threatening again the civil rights of U.S. citizens. On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden revoked Executive Order 13780 and its related proclamations in Presidential Proclamation 10141.