Multiple outlets reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump is housing migrant children in a former Japanese internment camp.
JUST IN: Trump administration to send migrant children to former Japanese internment camp: report https://t.co/UsdSmYuKoe pic.twitter.com/6cWPuj9mNg
— The Hill (@thehill) June 12, 2019
Similar headlines came from:
- HuffPost: Trump Administration To Detain Migrant Children On Site Of WWII Japanese American Internment Camp
- Fast Company: The Trump administration is holding migrant kids in a former internment camp for Japanese Americans
- TIME: Trump Administration to Hold Migrant Children at Base That Served as WWII Japanese Internment Camp
- Bustle: Fort Sill Was An Internment Camp In The 1940s. Migrant Children Will Be Held There.
While the statement is true, most of the headlines leave out the fact that Fort Sill, Oklahoma — which was temporarily repurposed in the 1940s as an internment camp — is, to this day, a fully operational Army base that has been in use since Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan staked out the land in 1869.
The “former Japanese internment camp” is also just a U.S. Army base that’s been continually operating since the 1860’s. https://t.co/EHu7Si2jaO
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 12, 2019
That didn’t stop many from running with the narrative, regardless. (RELATED: MSNBC: No, Migrant Children Are Not Kept In Cages)
US plans to detain migrant kids at former WW2 internment camp for Japanese Americans: @TIME https://t.co/mg3ul8MggU pic.twitter.com/751yU2Bxzu
— David Beard (@dabeard) June 12, 2019
More than 1,400 unaccompanied migrant children are being sent to the site of a WWII internment camp. Why is the system this broken? https://t.co/wjJG4iAJzJ pic.twitter.com/TQIcgDj2bt
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) June 12, 2019
And Trump critics were only too happy to jump on the bandwagon:
The internment of Japanese Americans is a stain on our history. It abhorrent that 75 years later, this administration now wants to hold migrant children in one of those same camps.
We will look back on Trump’s racist child prisons as an abomination. https://t.co/DOBxbhdrcd
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 12, 2019
This is sick.
We will look back at this moment in time and ask ourselves what we did to put a stop to these horrific, inhumane policies. Speak up. Speak out. Be on the right side of history. https://t.co/cnm4ME5IVw
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 12, 2019
1942: Fort Sill in Oklahoma holds 700 Japanese-Americans interned during World War II under a racist executive order.
2019: Fort Sill in Oklahoma holds 1,400 migrant children kidnapped from their families by DHS at the border under a racist president. https://t.co/XNhBNVsKIP— Swing Left (@swingleft) June 12, 2019
A former Japanese internment camp now used to hold migrants. Hundreds forced for days into outdoor confinement with little protection against intense sun. Every Democratic presidential candidate should pledge to hold those responsible criminally accountable.
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) June 12, 2019
Families like mine still bear scars from the suffering they underwent in Japanese internment. It’s immoral for our government to be doing this to children seeking asylum. Internment was a dark time in our history — we can’t allow history to repeat itself. https://t.co/yguBv0gmWv
— Mark Takano (@RepMarkTakano) June 12, 2019
History is repeating itself on OUR WATCH. Remember that. We can’t say we did not know. https://t.co/aQVGUO7nuA
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) June 12, 2019
Those who thought this could never happen again were wrong | Time https://t.co/kFqLoR73SZ
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) June 12, 2019
People like Dr. Satsuki Ina, who was detained with her family in an internment camp, has been warning of this for a long time. She has been speaking out against family detention and the detainment of children, fearing this would happen. https://t.co/meGvLIHAcP
— Tina Vasquez (@TheTinaVasquez) June 12, 2019
They also left out the fact that when the border faced a surge of unaccompanied minors in 2014, then-President Barack Obama also opted to use Fort Sill as a temporary housing location for migrant children.
“Obama Sends Migrant Children to Former Japanese Internment Camp,” right The Hill? pic.twitter.com/SbFzIXAJmu
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 12, 2019
“As most Oklahomans have heard and seen on the news, there are currently between 1,000 and 1,500 migrant children being housed in dormitories on Fort Sill, an Army base in southwestern Oklahoma near Lawton (among other places across the country),” Oklahoma Policy Institute reported in July of 2014.
Fort Sill was just one of several locations the Obama administration used to temporarily house migrant children. Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, served as another.