Eric Holder cited President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ordered the forced removal of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, in a tweet Sunday calling for the reunification of children separated from their parents at the southern border.
Holder, who served as President Barack Obama's first attorney general, tweeted, "Return ALL of the separated children," along with a quote next to an image of Roosevelt: "Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
The Trump administration was fiercely criticized for implementing a "zero tolerance" policy of separating illegal immigrant parents and children at the southern border. President Donald Trump has since reversed the order, but there are still a significant number of eligible children who have not been reunited with their parents.
Holder's invocation of Roosevelt was curious, given the 32nd president signed an Executive Order in 1942 that ultimately resulted in the internment of some 112,000 Japanese-Americans, the majority of whom were second-generation U.S. citizens or third-generation children. His order, which came on the heels of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, authorized removing people from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable," Politico reported.
Return ALL of the separated children. pic.twitter.com/BCy0NJSNdE
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) July 29, 2018
The Pentagon defined the entire West Coast as a military area, and the U.S. Census Bureau helped by providing names to the Secret Service of those with Japanese ancestry.
While parents and children were not separated when they were interned, Quartz reported there were cases of individuals incarcerated for speaking out against the government and imprisoned separately from their families.
Roosevelt is often revered by historians as one of the country's greatest presidents and a progressive icon, but the internment of Japanese-Americans has long been considered a black mark on his record.