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By Sara Fischer, CNN

updated 4:50 PM EST, Mon November 24, 2014

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Washington (CNN) -- Sen. Rand Paul is receiving blowback from some of his Japanese-American colleagues after using World War II Japanese internment camps to describe what happens when a chief executive oversteps their power.

"Think of what happened in WWII, where the President issued an executive order," the Kentucky Republican said in a speech in his home state Friday slamming President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration. "He said to Japanese people, 'We're going to put you in a camp. We're going to take away all of your rights and liberties and we are going to intern you in a camp.'"

"I care that too much power gets in one place," Paul continued. "Why? Because there has been instances in our history where we allow power to gravitate to one person and that one person then makes decisions that really are egregious."

As news of the speech spread, Japanese lawmakers slammed Paul for his remarks.

"Rand Paul's comments comparing President Obama's executive order on Immigration with President Roosevelt's executive order that imprisoned thousands of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II could not be more misguided," Rep. Mike Honda said in a statement out Monday. "At best, he is confused. At worst, he is just wrong."

Honda himself lived in and out of Japanese internment camps for four years as a small child, as he referenced in his statement.

"As someone who as victim of executive order 9066, I can say without hesitation that (President Franklin Delano) Roosevelt was wrong," Honda said. "It was a misuse of power. President Obama's order is an appropriate use of executive order because Congress did not do its job."

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Japanese lawmakers slam Rand Paul - CNN.com