Notably, however, the Obama administration also used Fort Sill in 2014 to temporarily house migrant children, but research indicates not a single news organization, advocacy group, or politician noted Fort Sill's history as an internment camp at the time. And, as it turns out, Fort Sill was not the only former internment camp location utilized by the Obama administration.
In addition to Fort Sill, the Obama administration used Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to house migrant children apprehended at the southern border. An official Air Force website reported on June 11, 2014, that the base had been told to "establish an emergency shelter to house up to nearly 1,200 unaccompanied migrant children."
According to the National Park Service website, in 1942 "[s]ome Japanese Hawaiians and about 40 Issei from Fort Missoula were held at Fort Sam Houston along with 300 Alaskan Eskimos." The Kooskia Internment Camp Project at the University of Idaho reports as many as "1,000; Japanese, German, Italian, and other aliens" were held at Fort Sam Houston. Further, a State of Texas website says: "The internment camp at Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio) opened in late February 1942. The confinement site’s first internees were Japanese, German, and Italian enemy aliens living in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi."
Oklahoma Republicans in 2014 opposed the use of Fort Sill to house the migrant children, arguing that the use distracted from the military mission of the base. No 2014 contemporaneous news articles or statements by politicians either for or against the actions of the Obama administration mention either Fort Sill's or Fort Sam Houston's former status as World War 2 internment camps.
