Utah senator blocks internment camp designation, draws ire [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Utah senator blocks internment camp designation, draws ire

By JAMES ANDERSON and SAM METZ
February 11, 2022

DENVER (AP) — On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the forced internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans at the onset of World War II, Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is getting backlash for holding up the creation of a national historic site at a former internment camp in rural Colorado.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, says he has the support of 99 of the chamber’s 100 senators to pass the Amache National Historic Site Act, which would make the remote southeastern Colorado landmark a national historic site eligible for additional preservation assistance.

But his bill, co-sponsored by Colorado Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper, failed to pass by unanimous consent last week due to a lone objection from Lee, who opposes adding new federal lands without adequate funding and in the past has advocated for “swaps” to prevent expanding federal land ownership.

“Senator Lee does not object to this specific historical site. He does object to any increase in the total amount of land owned by the federal government as the federal government fails to adequately care for the land already in its vast holdings,” Lee’s spokesman, Lee Lonsberry, told The Associated Press.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/travel-mike-lee-john-hickenlooper-michael-bennet-colorado-f75f2901f4f321a906475318478545f6


FILE - A rebuilt watchtower stands at Camp Amache, on Jan. 18, 2015, the site of a former World War II-era Japanese-American internment camp in Granada, Colo. On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the forced internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans at the onset of World war II, Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is getting backlash for holding up the creation of a national historic site at the former internment camp in extreme southeast Colorado. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)