We are former World War II internees, their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and friends. We remember that 75 years ago the Japanese American community was forcibly removed from their homes and imprisoned in camps around the country - in an act motivated by racism and hysteria - that deprived our family members of their freedom, rights, privacy, property, and in some cases, their lives.

Our government is now engaging in a cruel and inhumane program of separating children from their families and detaining children in horrific conditions. As we hear news reports revealing that 15,000 children are in federal camps, seven children have died in custody in the last year alone, and that in a Texas facility, "infants, children and teenagers were being held without adequate food, water or sanitation," we are horrified that our government would choose to ignore the tragic history of Japanese internment camps by creating a policy of mass incarceration of immigrant children and families today.

We raise our collective voices to demand human rights and dignity for asylum seekers and all immigrants:

• Close all migrant detention camps
• Defund family detention and deportation
• Reunify children with their families
• Fund humanitarian aid and solutions