Chinese American Citizens Alliance (C.A.C.A.) Calls for Halt to National Archives Closures

The Chinese American Citizens Alliance (C.A.C.A.), the nation's longest serving Chinese American civil rights organization, has formally called on the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to halt the proposed closures of the National Archives at San Francisco, located in San Bruno, California, and the National Archives at Chicago, warning that the loss of local access to these collections would have lasting consequences for historians, genealogists, educators, and immigrant communities.

“[C.A.C.A.] urges the National Archives to halt the closure of its San Bruno and Chicago facilities. The San Bruno archive holds more than 750,000 unique immigration and naturalization records from over 80 countries. Its holdings include Chinese Exclusion case files, Angel Island arrival records, World War II records, Mexican land grant cases, Hawaiian citizenship records, and materials vital to tracing Native American and immigrant family histories. These documents record who was allowed to belong in America. They include materials related to United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the landmark Supreme Court case establishing birthright citizenship. They are essential to families, scholars, journalists, and communities whose histories are too often absent from the public record.”

Read the full statement here.