Raids By ICE Bring Devastating Memories Back To Japanese Americans

BRIDGETON, NJ — As raids by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents continue nationwide, the Japanese American population is fighting back against feelings that were built by actions nearly a century ago.

The War Relocation during World War II sent around 120,000 people into internment camps in the United States as racial fears were at a high during the 1940s.

According to the U.S. National Archives, around two-thirds of these people were U.S. citizens.

Japanese Americans were considered enemies and labeled as dangers to national security, regardless of age, as part of the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks in Hawaii in 1941.

In a 2026 where many immigrants live in constant fear, descendants of Japanese victims are joining other minorities in speaking out from coast to coast against modern day detainment prisons and deportations.

"I, and many Japanese Americans, not only see, but feel the parallels between what happened with our community and what's happening now," Kelly Kuwabara told NJ Advance Media.

Kuwabara, who joined in at a demonstration in Bridgeton on May 1, has family who were detained by American forces during World War II.

The region is still reeling after watching masked agents break through a car window on March 26 to detain a man in front of his family.

Edgar Gomez-Ramirez, 41, of Vineland, had just left the Cumberland County Courthouse in Bridgeton, where court filings showed he was charged with fourth-degree assault by auto, when federal officers approached the car he was in.

In the video, a masked ICE agent can be seen smashing through the window with a baton, trying to detain him as Gomez's family screams in despair, wondering why no warrant was shown or explanation given.

It's moments like this that are continuing to unite new activists across the country.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside) of California has parents who were both American-born, but were incarcerated as young Japanese kids during the relocations of World War II.

"We look back on that era of history as a shameful one, as a time when our political leaders failed the Constitution, failed the American people," said Takano.

A high school history teacher before being elected to Congress in 2012, Takano is now the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Regardless of race, ICE continues to maintain that they are going after some of the worst criminals who are in the United States illegally.

In the first year under the current administration, the Department of Homeland Security said they have deported more than 605,000 people in addition to the around 2 million people who have self-deported.

In Newark, dozens of arrests have taken place over the last two weeks as protesters continue to clash with ICE officers outside of immigrant detention center, "Delaney Hall." Read More: Trump Supporters, Proud Boys Crash Anti-ICE Protest In New Jersey

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