Honda has dedicated his life to public service and is lauded for his work on education, civil rights, national service, immigration, transportation, the environment and high-tech issues. Honda has represented the 15th Congressional District of California in the US House of Representatives for 12 years, and he is a member of the influential House Appropriations and Budget committees. He was born in California, but spent his early childhood with family in an internment camp for Japanese Americans in Colorado during World War II. His family returned to California in 1953, becoming strawberry sharecroppers in San José's Blossom Valley. “My parents raised me talking about the injustices of camp, how it was a violation of the Constitution, and how Japanese Americans had been mistreated,” Honda said.
“I've since followed in their footsteps by advocating for social justice and publically serving communities that do not have a voice. The reason we were sent to camp is because no one in Washington said ‘no.’ I’m here in Congress to make sure that never happens again to any community in America.”
This year marks the 70 th anniversary of when mass imprisonments were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt through Executive Order 9066 . What followed was one of the most shameful episodes in American history, as the US held prisoners in internment camps without cause besides racial prejudice. More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained, and one-third of those came from Los Angeles.
Chu was elected to Congress in July 2009 and has become a strong advocate for effective, humane and progressive immigration reform, having been an original co-sponsor of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. She has worked hard to help Americans emerge from the recession, co-sponsoring a bill that would extend and expand the enormously successful Jobs NOW program, which uses federal stimulus funds to subsidize jobs at the local level and has already resulted in more than 11,000 jobs in Los Angeles County.
MPAC’s 12 th annual convention will take place in a church, a first for any American Muslim organization. Hosted by All Saints Church in Pasadena, the daytime convention program will feature inspiring voices of activists, scholars, journalists and religious leaders exploring our theme of “Our Future in the Making.” The convention banquet will take place immediately afterward at the Pasadena Convention Center.
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