Immigration records from Angel Island — the “Ellis Island of the West” that was the first stop for the ancestors of many San Franciscans — will be harder to examine if a Trump administration plan to close the San Bruno National Archives repository is successful.
These and other federal records housed locally have gained greater visibility in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision last week striking down President Trump’s Executive Order 14160 that would have sharply curtailed birthright citizenship. Pivotal to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision was the case of Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco native who was denied entry to the United States in 1895 after a trip abroad on the basis that he was not a U.S. citizen. His records are available at the San Bruno facility. Save Our National Archives, a coalition of local and national community leaders, historians and other concerned individuals and institutions are calling on the Trump administration to reverse its plan to close the San Bruno facility and another in Chicago.
While the Trump administration pledges to make many of the documents available elsewhere, it is not currently known where the documents will go. An internal National Archives notice suggests that the closure of the San Bruno facility and transfer or digitization of documents could occur as early as next month.
This is not the first time the National Archives has sought to close the San Bruno facility. Advocates were successful in thwarting a 1998 plan to close it. Other regional facilities have closed, consolidated, or reduced their access and hours during both Republican and Democratic administrations. Over the last 20 years, however, historians, educators, affected communities, and citizen volunteers have impressed upon federal officials the value of organizing, protecting and maintaining historic documents close to the people whose histories are contained in the records.
The San Bruno facility contains, among other things, immigration reports, transcripts of interviews that determined whether an individual would be admitted to or excluded from the country, Alcatraz prison records, records from courts housed on the West Coast, documents related to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and selected files of the regional offices of over 100 federal agencies — in all, over 75,000 cubic feet of original records and thousands of microfilmed documents and photographs. The significance of the records goes beyond supporting family tree historic research. The records enhance historians’ accurate reflection of history and have legal significance.
Free and accessible archives of the government’s words and actions keep the people in a democracy from ignoring history and the leaders from distorting it for their own purposes.
During World War II, 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned in 27 relocation camps, including the Tanforan Assembly Center across El Camino Real Highway from the San Bruno Archives facility. Fred Korematsu and his family were detained there. He challenged his internment but lost before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1944. Almost 40 years later, a historian and a group of young Asian American attorneys persuaded a San Francisco federal court judge to overturn his wartime conviction by utilizing military and Justice Department records found in government archives. These internal government memoranda showed that the federal government withheld key information from the U.S. Supreme Court about the lack of evidence of disloyalty or espionage upon which the relocation had been ordered.
Just last week in the birthright citizenship case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson emphasized what ultimately may be at stake in the fight to keep open the regional archives facility. In an exchange with Justice Clarence Thomas about whether the 14th Amendment was intended only for freed slaves or for all people, she echoed the words of Frederick Douglas that “… nations should have memories.” Even a greater threat than not remembering is “[t]he distortion of historical facts — retellings that reimagine and repurpose past events to lend credence to misbegotten aims.” Free and accessible archives of the government’s words and actions keep the people in a democracy from ignoring history and the leaders from distorting it for their own purposes.
Defenders of access to archives in regional centers are organizing community groups, educators, historians, and the general public to call on the National Archives to reverse its closure plans and for Congress to step in. They are sending letters to Acting Archivist Edward Forst asking for a delay and ultimate reversal of the closure plan. Forst was appointed Acting Archivist of the United States in April but continues as the Administrator of the General Services Administration. While he is a former Harvard University vice president and Goldman Sachs executive, he lacks the professional qualifications typically associated with archivist and that are required by law. He inherits a series of politicized demands on the National Archives and a budget proposal that seeks an 8 percent reduction in funds for next year. Where this issue fits on the list of agency priorities remains to be seen.
In Congress, San Bruno’s Kevin Mullin and Chicago’s Brad Schneider serve the districts housing the two archives centers currently threatened with closure. A small handful of senators and representatives may also play key roles in any Congressional action to oppose the closures or fund their retention. They include U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.); Andy Kim (D-N.J.); and Susan Collins (R-Me.); and Representatives Ro Khanna and Lateefah Simon of the Bay Area.
Transporting and/or digitizing such a large volume of records, photographs, and documents cannot be completed this year. Thus, the fight to save the San Bruno archives facility, if not successful now, will continue into 2027 when it is possible one or both houses of Congress could revisit the issues and take steps legislatively to block or reverse the action and to appropriate the funds necessary to keep and expand them here.
