By FRANCISCO CIRAULO

Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at the recently opened Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, are facing conditions reminiscent of those that Japanese Americans faced during WWII. Since September, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) has repeatedly pressed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE over “dangerous and inhumane” conditions stemming from poor water, food, sanitation, sewage, and medical conditions.

Camp East Montana is a part of Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army post and training base with a history of unjust detainment. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) have expressed vocal opposition to the conversion of Fort Bliss into an immigration detention camp, citing its past use as an incarceration site for Japanese Americans during WWII.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the infamous Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, into 10 detention centers. Families were uprooted from homes, stripped of personal property, and confined behind barbed wire fences in hastily constructed barracks-style camps. Incarcerees were subjected to overcrowding and extreme temperatures while being forced to use bathrooms without stall doors or proper sanitation. Both freedom and dignity were thrown to the wayside in a state-sanctioned system of oppression.

I grew up in Sacramento, Calif, as a member of the Florin JACL chapter, where I heard firsthand accounts from incarceration survivors. As a middle school student, I joined the annual pilgrimage to Manzanar, returned four years later to help rebuild the Manzanar Children’s Village, and in 2024 joined the first post-COVID pilgrimage to Tule Lake. These pilgrimages are not just about remembering the past, but also about advocating for a better future.

Unfortunately, we are in the process of repeating history. We have not learned. We have not remembered. The U.S. is repeating the injustices of WWII Japanese American incarceration, and Camp East Montana shows how easily state-sanctioned mistreatment persists when we fail to confront our past.

But poor living conditions are not the only issues that have plagued the conversion of Fort Bliss. Another point of controversy is the $1.2 billion federal contract the Trump administration made with Acquisition Logistics LLC to run the facility. Lack of transparency over this contract is apparent, and the decision to use a small business with little experience running correctional facilities has sparked questions that have not been answered.

At the heart of this issue is a fundamental question about the marginalization of state power. The use of an intentionally opaque federal contract underscores how easily state authority can be ignored. Texas congressmembers have a moral obligation to demand transparency and do everything in their power to ensure humane conditions for detainees. We need more public scrutiny to hold federal authorities accountable. Camp East Montana is a stark reminder that progress is never guaranteed, and failing to remember our past can have dangerous consequences.

Francisco Ciraulo is a senior studying political science at Stanford University. Born of Chinese, Mexican, and Italian heritage, he grew up in Sacramento, Calif. He has been part of the Florin chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League for over a decade. The views expressed in the preceding commentary are not necessarily those of the Nichi Bei News.