Closure of Angel Island Park Threatened

May 31, 2009

Save the U.S. Immigration Station, Angel Island

On May 28, California State Parks officials confirmed what had been dreaded for days by millions of Californians who love the cultural, historical and recreational resources of the State Parks. It’s official – 220 State Parks will be closed unless the Legislature acts to amend or rescind Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget recommendations.

Among the parks slated to be closed is our beloved Angel Island State Park, home of the Immigration Station, a National Historic Landmark, which just reopened to the public on February 15, 2009 after a three and a half year, $15 million restoration . Over 1,600 attended the Grand Reopening. Just two weeks ago, 235 people came to a poetry reading at the Immigration Station in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Thousands of people, many of them grade school students, have visited the site and tours are booked solid into the summer.

Now all that could come to a screeching halt unless you act immediately.

You can make a difference. Only a huge public outcry can reverse the decision and stop the closure of Angel Island State Park and all the other State Parks on the chopping block.

On Tuesday, June 2, the Budget Conference Committee will meet at the State Capitol in Room 4203 starting at 9:30 a.m. The public is invited to comment on the proposed cuts. AIISF will be testifying, and you too can add your voice both in the all-day meeting or outside on the Capitol steps. More details about a rally will be coming shortly.

If you can’t come to Sacramento on Tuesday, June 2, you can also make your voice heard by sending a letters to Governor Schwarzenegger and to your state representatives. We are working closely with the California State Parks Foundation, which is coordinating the state-wide advocacy effort. Send a message today at www.calparks.org/stopclosures by using their automated form to generate a fax on your behalf directly to the Governor and your state representatives. Let us know that you have contacted your representatives by sending us an e-mail at info@aiisf.org. We will keep you updated as this campaign unfolds.

You can also help the cause by writing letters to your local newspaper and blogs on TV station websites, community news sites, and to friends. We’ve posted some sample messages and a fact sheet developed by the California State Parks Foundation.

The hour is late and the stakes are high. If Angel Island State Park closes, the effort to restore and stabilize the crumbling Hospital, future home for more exhibition space, a genealogy center, and conference space, could grind to a halt. Thousands of school children and members of the public would be denied the opportunity to experience the haunting and moving poetry carved on the walls of the Detention Barracks. Our society would lose a lasting reminder of our nation’s complex immigration experience.

We have worked too long and come too far to turn back now. The Immigration Station and Angel Island State Park must remain open to the public. Join us in the fight to save the Immigration Station and stop the closure of the State Parks. Thank you.

Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
50 Francisco Street, Suite 110
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415)262-4429

When it opened in 1910, the new detention facility on Angel Island was considered ideal because of its isolation. There were buildings to house and care for detainees, a pier, and regular boat service to the mainland. During the next 30 years, this was the point of entry for most Chinese immigrants and approximately 175,000 came to Angel Island. The average detention was two to three weeks, but many stayed for several months and a few were forced to remain on the island for nearly two years.

Some detainees expressed their feelings in poetry that they brushed or carved onto the wooden walls of the detention center. Others simply waited, hoping for a favorable response to their appeals, but fearing deportation. Many of the poems that were carved into the walls of the center are still legible today. Others were documented through the efforts of two detainees, Smiley Jann and Tet Yee in 1931-32, who copied down the poetry while they awaited disposition of their cases.

In 1940, the government decided to abandon the Immigration Station on Angel Island. Their decision was hastened by a fire that destroyed the administration building in August of that year. On November 5, the last group of about 200 aliens (including about 150 Chinese) was transferred from Angel Island to temporary quarters in San Francisco. The so-called “Chinese Exclusion Acts”, which were adopted in the early 1880s, were repealed by federal action in 1943, because by that time, China was an ally of the U.S. in World War II.

Both of my parents were held at Angel Island when the migrated to the United States.