LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Nearly 75 years after federal officials shuttered a Japanese-American internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas, the Trump administration is examining a site about 2 miles away as a potential temporary shelter for immigrant children.
The Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that the government is considering an unused Department of Agriculture property in nearby Kelso as an immigrant shelter, as well as a possible shelter at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Actor George Takei, who lived at Rohwer, tweeted about the proposed shelter late Thursday, saying he had “no words.” Between 1942 and 1945, the internment camp housed around 8,500 Japanese-American citizens under armed guard.
Many of the state’s Republican officials, including U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman as well as Gov. Asa Hutchinson, are opposed to either possible shelter in Arkansas.
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