Speech #1020004119

I recall that there were then suggestions made that a "roundup" of all Iranian Americans and other fundamentalist Moslems in the United States might be a good idea. Madam Speaker. at that moment in 1979. I suddenly realized how the seeds had been sown for my internment back in 1942. Hysteria. racism. and weak political leadership had fed upon themselves. The result was that the protections of our Constitution were simply set aside for a select and temporarily unpopular group of Americans. This scenario reared its ugly head again in the 1980s. ArabAmericans were under attack. Had the Immigration and Naturalization Service had its way. INS would have used its 100acre prison complex in Oakdale. LA. as a detention center for socalled undesirables.