{"id":697,"date":"2026-06-28T04:36:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=697"},"modified":"2026-06-28T04:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:36:26","slug":"japanese-internment-survivors-gather-to-demand-closure-of-texas-ice-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=697","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Internment Survivors Gather to Demand Closure of Texas ICE Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n

Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, <\/span><\/i>support us with a donation<\/span><\/i> of any size.<\/span><\/i><\/p>

Read more Mexican Gig Workers Are Fighting to Close a Loophole in Their Worker Status Win<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

Roughly two dozen immigration advocates, faith leaders, Japanese internment camp survivors and their descendants completed a four-day, 45-mile pilgrimage Saturday to an immigrant detention facility outside of Dilley.<\/p>\n

The activists demanded the closure of the only federal family detention center, described by a Japanese internment survivor as inhumane and a tragic \u201crepetition of American history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free Families, a national coalition of organizations advocating for immigrant families, organized the pilgrimage with Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministries, Grassroots Leadership and Tsuru for Solidarity, a group of Japanese American concentration camp survivors and descendants who work to end detention. The goal of the pilgrimage was \u201cto shut down Dilley, end family detention in its entirety, and stop family separation caused by ICE targeting and detention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Action was a central theme of the pilgrimage. \u201cJoin us everywhere,\u201d said Mike Ishii, executive director and co-founder of Tsuru for Solidarity. \u201cMarch in solidarity, walk in spiritual faith and strength, just as we are doing today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, as a country, we will transform the violence, and we will open the future to a new path,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The pilgrimage began Wednesday morning at the Crystal City Concentration Camp, where Japanese American families were imprisoned in Texas during World War II.<\/p>\n

Walking up to 12 miles each morning, the group arrived at Dilley\u2019s South Texas Family Residential Center around 10 a.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

Interfaith leaders and activists prayed, delivered a meditative chant and tied chains of multicolored origami cranes to the facility\u2019s 10-foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire.<\/p>\n

The paper cranes were folded by Japanese American concentration camp survivors and their descendants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bring [these cranes] on their behalf and in solidarity with the children and the families being subjected to violence inside of Dilley and in every detention site across the country,\u201d Ishii said. \u201cThe message from us is this must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will transform the violence,\u201d Ishii said as 16-wheelers barreled down the nearby highway. \u201cWe will open the future to a new path.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dilley facility is the nation\u2019s only immigrant detention center that imprisons parents with their children. About 70 miles southwest of San Antonio, the facility has held children ranging from infants to teenagers.<\/p>\n

The South Texas Family Residential Center opened in 2014, becoming the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s largest immigrant family detention center. It can hold 2,400 people and was designed to accommodate women and children.<\/p>\n

The facility has been the site of intense protests, with critics saying it is inhumane to detain young children and mothers as criminals when they pose no security risk.<\/p>\n

Criticism led to the closure of Dilley\u2019s facility during the Biden administration. In March 2025, the Trump administration reopened the facility with CoreCivic, a private prison corporation. Under the Trump administration, the daily number of children detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement increased over sixfold, with Dilley\u2019s facility as the primary detention center for children.<\/p>

Read more Protests Over Kushner-Backed Development Threaten to Topple Albanian Government<\/a><\/p>\n

This year, Dilley has made national headlines. After photos of immigration agents detaining 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in Minnesota went viral, protesters clashed with authorities outside the facility, where he was transferred. During a January protest at the center\u2019s gates, authorities used tear gas and pepper ball grenades on hundreds of faith leaders, advocates and residents. Two people were arrested.<\/p>\n

A few days later, the Dilley facility reported two cases of measles. Those incarcerated at the facility have reported moldy, worm-ridden food and neglectful medical care. Ms. Rachel, a popular children\u2019s entertainer, recently called Dilley\u2019s detainment of children \u201cchild abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

For survivors of Japanese internment, Dilley\u2019s family detention facility hearkens to the U.S. concentration camps that shuttered 80 years ago.<\/p>\n

In 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, nearly all persons of Japanese ancestry in the mainland U.S. were forced into internment camps for the remainder of World War II. More than 120,000 people were incarcerated, over two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. Still alive today are several survivors who were incarcerated as children.<\/p>\n

Standing outside the Dilley detention center\u2019s fence, Rev. Kenji Akaposhi, a retired Buddhist minister and survivor of Japanese internment, told pilgrims, \u201cI was 2 weeks old when my family was incarcerated. Because of that trauma that I suffered \u2014 that has been with me my entire life \u2014 I am here to help those, especially the children, whose lives are being affected as we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Satsuki Ina, 82, was born inside Crystal City camp, where her family was held for more than four years. Saturday marked Ina\u2019s second pilgrimage to Dilley\u2019s detention facility, and she was accompanied by other survivors, including Chizu Omori, 96, who was also returning to Dilley for the second time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to know we are back here again,\u201d Ina said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might be old, we might be here with our canes and our hearing aids and our walkers and our dentures, but we\u2019re mad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ina was accompanied by her 22-year-old granddaughter, Skyla Tomine, who is the national organizing fellow for Tsuru for Solidarity and a descendant of relatives from three different internment camps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am heartbroken again that she has to even be here,\u201d Ina said. \u201cWhat is happening today is a repetition of American history, over and over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pastor Dianne Garcia, who leads a Mennonite community, opened the ceremony with a faith-based reflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that God cries out for justice with us, as we have cried out for justice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s 12-year-old daughter, Clara, led the group in a song that was produced in collaboration with children inside Dilley\u2019s detention facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sing from here, and you sing from there. Together we\u2019ll sing down the walls everywhere. Love in our hearts like the waves of the sea. Together we\u2019ll sing until everyone\u2019s free,\u201d she sang.<\/p>\n

The ceremony closed with Ishii leading a chant frequently recited in Japanese internment camps. \u201cKodomo no tame ni. There are children, set them free,\u201d the group shouted.<\/p>\n

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans \u2014 and engages with them \u2014 about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. <\/em><\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s Federal Lawyers Ramp Up Their Attacks on Demonstrators and the Left<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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