Director’s Statement

New York City, Fall of 2001: the wreckage of the World Trade Center was still smoldering. The acrid, toxic fumes from its wreckage filled the streets of Lower Manhattan. Despite the fear and anger the attack provoked as an immediate reaction, throughout the city there soon grew a sense of unity, of basic humanity overcoming political or ethnic divides.

But over the following weeks elected and appointed leaders beating the drum of “national security” pounded away at that unity. They began targeting Muslim men in increasing numbers for arrest, detention, and deportation. Muslim women faced harassment in the streets.

My perspective on post-9/11 detentions was shaped by my family history. During World War II the U.S. government forcibly removed my grandparents and over 110,000 other Japanese Americans from their homes and incarcerated them. I was disturbed and outraged to learn that decades after making a formal apology and paying reparations for the internment, my government was again demonizing and arresting people based on their nationality.

It was Asians, starting with Chinese immigrants, who were first targeted for exclusion and made “illegal immigrants” by white nationalists. Sparked by this Asian American perspective, Life or Liberty forges bonds of solidarity with the immigrants of all nationalities who have been uprooted, locked up, and abused by the apparatus called Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Among Japanese Americans who once said “Never Again,” outrage has coalesced into #NeverAgainIsNow as thousands of Latin American families are confined and Muslim refugee families are banned and torn apart.

The way the most vulnerable people stand up and resist oppression has been the driving concern of my work for more than 15 years. Immigrant movements are leading the way towards true liberty and respect for life in this country, and with your support I’m grateful to continue this work as a citizen galvanized by my immigrant heritage.