The Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, one of the places Japanese Americans were held during World War II, will serve as an emergency shelter for unaccompanied children who have crossed the border into the United States, L.A. County has announced.
The Biden administration has contacted communities throughout the nation to find space for undocumented children being sheltered in Border Patrol facilities. It even urged, unsuccessfully, that NASA employees go to the border to volunteer in the overcrowded camps.
Also known as the Pomona Fairplex, the mega-facility in the city of Pomona is the third in Southern California to serve in that capacity.
In 1942, months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the detention of Japanese Americans, fearing they would be loyal to the emperor of Japan.
The Pomona location was selected as one of the camps. A California Historic Landmark plaque near Fairplex, at around 1099 West McKinley Avenue, Pomona, commemorates the event.
