It’s a good time to remember.

This week marked 83 years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, incarcerating Americans of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast of the United States.

As thoughtfully put by writers Rita Brogan and Bruce Haulman in this week’s opinion page, we soberly remember that past so that we aren’t caught off guard by the present.

It’s a lesson seared into the minds of all survivors and children of pogroms, expulsions, ethnic cleansings and other violations of human rights, and one crucial right now as rapid change from the White House rocks our country’s institutions.

It’s easy to forget, but it can — and did — happen here.

On May 16, 1942, armed soldiers forced 111 Japanese American residents of Vashon onto trucks outside Ober Park and then into camps across the western United States — an act of racism that violated basic human rights and deprived families of home and property.

Suspicion of members of an ethnic or political group can quickly metastasize into sweeping laws and orders which harm the innocent.

Student visa holders can already be deported for criminal activity, but now, under the guise of preventing terrorism, Trump has already promised to deport those who join in certain protests. We may find some speech reprehensible. But the First Amendment applies to non-citizens, too.

We are fortunate, during this wave of new deportations across the country, to have the Keep Washington Working (KWW) Act — a state law passed in 2019 that, in part, guards the rights of all children, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, to receive a public education.

Vashon Island School District moved much too slowly to enact a policy complying with the law, doing so only on January 23, following the Trump Administration’s revocation of guidelines barring most immigration enforcement actions from “protected locations” such as schools.

Passing the policy was a step in the right direction — it prohibits almost all VISD staff members from allowing immigration authorities to enter the district’s buildings or grounds, and requires staff to direct those engaging in immigration enforcement to the school principal.

The policy also requires those immigration officers to produce a court order or warrant, which must be verified by the district superintendent or legal authority, before trying to communicate with a student, enter school grounds or conduct an arrest. And it details what kinds of immigrant information can be collected from students, how the district must respond to requests for that information, and how staff should help students prepare for the possibility of family separation.

But the district must now act more swiftly to train its employees around the policy. As of this week, only one group of district staff — not including classroom teachers and paraeducators — has received this training.

This presidential administration is moving fast. We must move faster.