1400 migrant children to be detained at Fort Sill: here’s your chance to help

By Sam Royka
Journalism Intern

In 1942, Ft. Sill housed Japanese Americans in 1942 strict military style with towers equipped with 30 caliber machine guns, shotguns, and searchlights.

On June 22, a military police officer with a name tag that said Keyes told a group of peaceful protestors having a press conference to get out: “Let’s go! Now! Today!”

As Keyes ordered them to go, when the protestors asked what would happen if they did not leave, Keyes replied that he didn’t know. He said, “I’m not going to arrest you, but you need to move now.”

Michael Ishii, who helped organize the protest, then calmly said: “Then we’re not going to move.”

Ishii gave a statement that said, “I am here, a descendant, to support my elders, who have come to bear witness and to raise their collective voices in opposition to mass detention.”

This is the same camp that housed the Chiracahua Apache Tribe as prisoners of war when they were forced out of the Southwestern United States.

These 1400 children come at a time when conditions across the nation in camps are reported as unsanitary, dangerous, and inhumane.

Japanese Americans organized under Tsuru for Solidarity across the US after the Government announced plans to detain over 1400 migrant children at the military base.

There is a #CloseTheCamps protest scheduled at Ft. Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, 2019.

Jose Rubio, deputy executive director of Dream Action Oklahoma, is reaching out: “Join us next Saturday July 20th where we will show that we will not stand by quietly while ICE and CBP terrorizes our communities, separates families and put people of color in concentration camps. We demand that Congress #CloseTheCamps #DefundsICE and #DefundsCBP. … Food and transportation will be provided.”

Sign up for this event on Facebook or at www.tiny.cc/closethecampsok.

More information about the upcoming protest can be found at www.closethecamps.us.

Copyright The Gayly 7/12/2019 @12:38 p.m. CST.