A Reagan-era DOJ plan identified a Louisiana camp for interning Arab Americans
Evidence
In the context of Reagan’s war on terror, a DOJ document titled Alien Terrorists and Undesirables: A Contingency Plan provided a blueprint for the FBI to round up and detain Arab Americans. The justification it provided was that terrorists originate from Arab countries and must therefore be detained in the name of national security. The DOJ even identified an internment camp in rural Louisiana as the location where Arab Americans would be held. While this plan was not put into practice, several legal cases, particularly the case against the LA 8, exemplified the state’s program of racial targeting. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 544
Categorization
- SEED: An internment camp in rural Louisiana for Arab Americans is a specific, vivid historical fact that could anchor an essay on how states prepare racial roundups that later get activated during crises.
- XREF: Echoes Japanese American internment during WWII; also parallels other contingency plans for mass detention. — connects to: Reagan-era DOJ drew up internment-camp plans for Arab Americans — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 544; Reagan-era DOJ drew up internment-camp plans for Arab Americans and prosecuted the LA 8. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 556; The Justice Department planned mass internment camps for Arab Americans in 1986 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Reagan-era DOJ drew up internment-camp plans for Arab Americans
#corroborates(1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 544 - The Justice Department planned mass internment camps for Arab Americans in 1986
#corroborates(0.95) - The INS prepared an internment camp for Arabs and Iranians in 1986
#corroborates(0.90) - Reagan-era DOJ drew up internment-camp plans for Arab Americans and prosecuted the LA 8.
#expands(0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 556 - Nixon-era and Reagan-era programs surveilled and detained Arab Americans by ethnicity alone
#expands(0.80) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 982