Out gay Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) compared civil rights abuses that immigrant detainees face under the current presidential administration to the more than 125,000 Japanese-Americans forcibly relocated to internment camps during WWII. His parents and grandparents were among them.In a column for The Rafu Shimpo, a California-based Japanese-American English-language newspaper, Takano specifically wrote about Alligator Alcatraz, a recently-shuttered immigrant detainment facility in the Florida Everglades where inmates have reported overcrowding, beatings, and gropings from guards, worms in food, backed up toilets that do not flush, a lack of natural light or clocks, floors flooded with wastewater, limited showers, constant mosquitoes, and tents with relentless heat. Related Out Rep. Mark Takano sounds alarm over officials deeply disturbing comment on Holocaust deniers Although U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams recently ordered Florida and the current presidential administration to close the facility by the end of October, Takano says the facility was hastily set up to quickly and efficiently move people far from urban centers to a facility where order would be simple to impose.I have seen that logic before, Takano wrote. When the government imprisoned my family in camps, officials wrapped the policy in the language of necessity and security. They cited military zones and expedience, and they used banal words to mask a violation of the Constitution. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today There are distinctions between Japanese American incarceration of WWII and Alligator Alcatraz. But at its heart, there is not a wide gap between the two, he wrote, adding that both groups were forcibly removed and placed in mass confinement despite having done nothing wrong and without any due process.While state officials denied wrongdoing at the Florida detainment facility, he said, detainees were held without charges while being barred from meeting with lawyers and advocates for routine meetings. In both instances, the government claimed that violation of human rights en masse was and is justified because of emergency circumstances, he added. In both cases, there was and is no vetting, due process, or writ of habeas corpus. The government is so concerned with making it appear that they are executing on wild campaign promises that no human rights, no Constitution, and no court orders can stand in its way.This administration, which has leaned heavily into the optics of the prison and celebrated its cruelty, treats people as cattle to be processed rather than human beings with rights. Trumps ever-growing state apparatus makes sloppy, careless, and rushed arrests, Takano wrote, which is precisely why independent oversight and real access are not optional luxuries but basic safeguards.He then noted that historians have concluded that the WWII internment camps happened due to racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. He then called for greater transparency into the government officials overseeing the current human rights violations in detention facilities, the provision of detainees meaningful access to legal counsel, and improved access for independent observers (including members of Congress and credible journalists) who wish to witness the facilities conditions.None of this is radical. It is the bare minimum in a democracy that claims to respect the rule of law, he wrote, adding, The last time our nation failed this test, my family paid the price. I will not be quiet while others are made to pay it again.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.