Crystal City Internment Camp

Background

Crystal City Internment Camp, located near Crystal City, Texas, was a place of confinement for people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during World War II, and has been variously described as a detention facility or a concentration camp. The camp, which was originally designed to hold 3,500 people, opened in December 1943 and was officially closed on February 11, 1948. Officially known as the Crystal City Alien Enemy Detention Facility (more commonly referred to as U.S. Family Internment Camp, Crystal City, Texas), the camp was operated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) under the Department of Justice and was originally designed to hold Japanese families, but later held German families, as well, including many who were deported from Latin American countries to the U.S. A significant number of those incarcerated were native-born American citizens. Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. The Crystal City Internment Camp was one of the primary confinement facilities in the United States for families during World War II. The detention camps were described at the time as an "internal security" measure, but are now considered to have been "unjust and motivated by racism rather than real military necessity", as reported by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. The camp held 3,374 detainees on December 29, 1944.

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