Flanked by Japanese American and Native American community leaders, California Attorney General Rob Bonta escalated a growing national effort to block the Trump administration from closing regional centers of the National Archives. At issue in the federal lawsuit filed by Bonta today on behalf of the State of California is the future of the National Archives Records Center in San Bruno and thousands of original immigration and court records documenting major facets of California history dating back to statehood in 1850. As part of the suit, lawyers for the State of California will seek an immediate court order to block the move and keep records accessible until the case is finally decided.
Today’s court filing — the 99th lawsuit filed by Attorney General Bonta against the federal government over the past 90 weeks of President Trump’s second term — adds a new facet to what up to now has been a grassroots campaign by immigrant community activists, historians, and educators directed at Congressional intervention to block the Trump administration plans. In August, Congressman Kevin Mullin introduced H.R. 10131, the National Archives Protection Act, which would prohibit closure of federal archives centers nationwide. The bill has attracted eleven cosponsors, all Democrats, and a Senate companion bill, S. 5632, introduced by the four senators representing California and Illinois. Any action on these bills would occur only after Congress returns to Washington, D.C. following the November elections.
Today’s court action highlights the deep personal and community importance of access to the records in the regional archives centers, sometimes described as “America’s basement” due to the age of the documents and the character of archives facilities, some of which are underground. Bonta and Heather Hostler, executive director of California Indian Legal Services, traced the importance of the archives on determining individual tribal membership and recognition, protecting treaty and land rights, and documenting the history of the boarding schools where young people were held apart from family members. Mike Ishii, executive director of Tsuru for Solidarity, emphasized that the archives held “the evidence of what our government did to its own people,” in reference to, among other sites, the Tanforan Assembly Center just two miles from the San Bruno archives where Japanese Americans were told to report during World War II for internment and incarceration. Kristin Hayashi, executive director of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, also endorsed the “action to stop the closure of the NARA’s San Bruno facility. The historical documents at the San Bruno branch are highly significant to the nation, while also holding extraordinary meaning locally to the West Coast and California.”
The Trump administration has been dismissive of Congressional and community attempts to block the transfer of historical documents from the San Bruno and Chicago archives facilities to Kansas City, far from the communities that use the centers for genealogical, family, and community history research. The records include interviews, court files, and other documents associated with immigrants detained at Angel Island during the Chinese Exclusion Act era as well as records on Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco native, whose exclusion was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1898 in a case upholding birthright citizenship. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down a Trump administration executive order that would have ended birthright citizenship for millions of U.S.-born children of temporary residents and unauthorized immigrants.
Last week, the Trump administration informed Congressman Mullin that closing the San Bruno archives will save the federal government $4.7 million and reduce other costs, including personnel. Attorney General Bonta counters that, “Cutting costs doesn’t mean cutting corners.” The lawsuit maintains that the National Archives failed to assess the impact of the transfer of 75,000 cubic feet of archived records and objects on current visitors and archives users, California agencies, institutions, and organizations that utilize the records and academic stakeholders. Moreover, the State of California alleges that the move lacked adequate public notice or “reasoned decision-making,” both of which are key factors in a court upholding or rejecting the validity of federal administrative actions.
Congressman Mullin hailed today’s action by Attorney General Bonta and vowed to continue the fight in Congress. The efforts may serve to reinforce each other. In the short term, the State of California lawsuit may spark attorneys general in Illinois and Washington to file their own legal actions to protect facilities in Chicago and Seattle also slated for closure. In addition, the lawsuit may force enough of a delay so that, if one or both houses of Congress changes party control, prospects will increase for passage of either the Mullin bill or a Congressional appropriations restriction to deny funding to the Trump administration to carry out the transfer of archives and closure of the records centers.
