A Washington lawmaker is pursuing new legislation that aims to reinstate Obama-era diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at national parks and other federal public lands.
U.S. Representative Emily Randall, who represents the state’s 6th Congressional District, announced her new bill while touring the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial on Friday. The national historic site marks where the first Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up and imprisoned by the U.S. Government during World War II.
Randall’s bill is in direct response to President Donald Trump issuing an executive order last month that ended diversity and inclusion policies that applied to federal agencies that manage public lands. These initiatives were originally created by a memo issued by former President Barack Obama in 2017.
This directive instructed officials to cultivate a diverse workforce. It also called for officials to make federal lands such as parks and historic sites more accessible for “minority, low-income, and disabled populations and tribal communities.”
Since coming into office, Trump has worked to dismantle DEI programs across the country. Randall said her bill would help protect places like the Bainbridge Island memorial that educate visitors about American history, even the uglier moments.
“This administration is taking away funding and authority to make sure that our agencies, our government, our education system, our parks tell the full breath of our stories and represent the full breath of our communities,” she said.
The memorial commemorates March 30, 1942 when U.S. military troops forced 227 Bainbridge Island residents of Japanese descent to leave their homes. They were then incarcerated at camps across the country. According to the National Park Service, over 110,000 people of Japanese descent were imprisoned during World War II – the majority American citizens.
A total of 276 people were exiled from the island by the federal government – over half of them would eventually return. The memorial is a part of the Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho, which was a camp many of the island residents were sent to during the war.
The Bainbridge Island memorial has not remained untouched since Trump came into office. The site is managed by the park service and in a temporary ranger station there is a small sign inviting visitors to report any information that is “negative about either past or living Americans.”
The Trump administration ordered these signs be posted at national park sites across the country. Randall has also heard concerns over whether the president will cut funding for historic sites like the Bainbridge Island memorial.
“We are working to fight back against that to ensure we are continuing to invest in telling the stories of our past so that we do not relive them in the future,” she said. “For our country, as we face such similar attacks on immigrants, naturalized Americans, [and] green card holders — it’s essential that we don’t forget that we’ve been here before.”
According to a press release from her office, if Randall’s legislation passes it will improve public land management and reaffirm the federal government’s dedication to inclusive practices. However, it may be hard for the Washington state Democrat to find support for her proposal since the House of Representatives and the Senate are both controlled by Republican majorities.
