JANM Condemns Federal Operation on Its Grounds

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) is outraged by the presence of armed federal agents on its Norman Y. Mineta Democracy Plaza today, an effort to intimidate speakers at the Museum’s Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center), which was the chosen venue for a press conference held by Governor Gavin Newsom and other state and federal elected officials about California’s redistricting initiative. The Democracy Center explores the rights, freedoms, and fragility of democracy, helping to build bridges, and find common ground between people of diverse backgrounds and opinions. As the press conference began, around seventy-five armed Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents swarmed the sidewalk in front of the Museum and arrested at least one passerby. JANM’s Historic Building and Mineta Democracy Plaza is the site where in 1942, Los Angeles area Japanese Americans were ordered to assemble for forced removal to concentration camps during World War II.

“We are outraged and deeply distressed that armed federal agents came onto our campus—making arrests on the very ground where, in 1942, Japanese American families were forced to board buses bound for concentration camps. It was a deliberate act of provocation and intimidation. The parallels are stark: entire communities were forcibly removed from the West Coast in 1942 and today our immigrant brothers and sisters face the terror of ICE and CBP raids across the country. It was a miscarriage of justice then, and it is a miscarriage of justice now. Our plaza is hallowed ground—a ground zero point in the civil rights history of this country. That history is part of our DNA and the reason we exist—to confront difficult truths about race, identity, and the fragility of democracy, to stand up to authoritarianism. The Democracy Center was chosen by Governor Gavin Newsom for a major press conference on California’s redistricting initiative—a choice that speaks volumes for the visibility of our mission and the importance of the work we do every day to defend the principles that define a free and just society,” said Ann Burroughs, President and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum.

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