Biden expected to sign bill making ex-Japanese internment camp in Colorado a historic site

President Joe Biden is expected to sign a bill on Friday that designates the site of a World War II Japanese internment camp in southeastern Colorado as a National Historic Site.

The designation means the Granada Relocation Center – commonly known as Camp Amache – will become the Amache National Historic Site under the management of the National Park Service (NPS).

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., who sponsored the Amache National Historic Site Act, said the president will sign the bill into law on Friday.

“When we work together, when we listen and lead locally, we can accomplish a lot. This bill proves it,” Neguse said in a statement. “With the support of countless community advocates, and the powerful stories of survivors and descendants, we’ve been able to authorize the site’s designation in record time.”

The site, currently designated as a National Historic Landmark, at its peak had 7,300 Japanese American and Japanese immigrant internees, according to NPS.

The new site is meant to “preserve, protect, and interpret for the benefit of present and future generations resources associated with the incarceration of civilians of Japanese ancestry during World War II at Amache,” according to the bill’s text.

The bill, which has the support of Gov. Jared Polis, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in July and the U.S. Senate in February.