FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2003 Lisa Navarrete
Cecilia Muñoz
202-785-1670

NCLR CALLS FOR REP. HOWARD COBLE TO STEP DOWN AS CHAIR OF SUBCOMMITTEE ON DOMESTIC SECURITY

Washington, DC - [The following statement was released by Raul Yzaguirre, President of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Latino civil rights organization.]

I was shocked and outraged to learn of Representative Howard Coble’s (R-NC) comments during a recent radio interview indicating his belief that the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was “appropriate at the time,” and conducted to “protect” the very families that were rounded up from their homes and transferred to internment camps throughout the United States.

In one of the most egregious transgressions of the U.S. government in American history, over 120,000 law-abiding, deeply patriotic Japanese Americans were stripped of their freedom, their property, and their livelihoods simply because of their ethnic heritage. The internment scarred an entire community for generations and made a mockery of America’s commitment to civil rights and civil liberties for all its citizens. It is incomprehensible that in 2003 anyone, let alone a powerful member of Congress, would try to defend a program that was so shameful and which has been so thoroughly disavowed and denounced.

These comments are more than a revision of history. They are an important insight at a moment in which the U.S. is moving aggressively to curtail the rights of Arab Americans, Muslims, immigrants, and many others in a variety of ways. Indeed, many of the aggressive actions of the Department of Justice have invoked comparison with the internments of World War II.

While Representative Coble apparently does not believe that it would be appropriate to round up Arab Americans, as suggested by the caller to the radio program in which he was participating, as Chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Domestic Security, he has direct oversight over the actions of government agencies in the war on terror. Many Americans – including the members of this organization – believe these agencies are making substantial mistakes in their important efforts against terrorism. As NCLR has stated repeatedly, these mistakes not only are costly in terms of civil rights, but they undercut the war on terrorism which we believe America must win.

NCLR believes strongly that the struggle against terrorism can and must be won by a nation that never wavers from its core values. We consider it our patriotic duty to speak out when the government acts in ways that jeopardize our security and our civil rights. We have spoken out against many such policies: the deputization of local police to act as immigration agents, the prohibition of legal permanent residents from serving as airport screeners, the inappropriate use of special registration programs for non-immigrants as “sting” operations, and others. We will be turning to Congress to listen and act to preserve the integrity of our nation’s best values as we vigorously fight against terror. We strongly believe that Rep. Coble’s comments suggest that he lacks the sensitivity and the commitment to civil rights to lead the House’s efforts in this regard. As such, we strongly urge him to resign as Chair of the Subcommittee on Domestic Security.

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