LAWTON – With shirts and signs bearing a message of “#Stop Repeating History,” members of the national Japanese-American group Tsuru for Solidarity organized a protest to bring attention to housing unaccompanied migrant children at Fort Sill.
A recent announcement that Fort Sill would play a vital role in the immigration crisis by once again taking in children spurred the protest.
As the Southwest Ledger reported last week, this is the second time in five years that Fort Sill, immediately north of Lawton, has been selected to provide temporary housing for migrant children. The post housed approximately 1,900 unaccompanied migrant children for about seven weeks in 2014 because of an earlier influx of migrants.
The ACLU of Oklahoma announced the demonstration on their website, stating that they were joining Tsuru for Solidarity, National Detention Watch and Densho to protest the incarceration of children separated from their families.
U.S. Senator James Lank-ford (OK) has delivered 10 floor speeches in the last three years addressing border security issues and the need for congressional action to solve immigration issues.
A press release shows that last September Lankford and colleagues introduced a bill to address care for unaccompanied minors while in federal custody.
“We are Americans. We are very passionate about families,” he said.
Southwest Ledger photos by Chris Martin