“Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

– Poet Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus,” 1883,
inscribed beneath the Statue of Liberty in 1903

This year, eleven historic sites are on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of the most endangered historic places in the United States. This year’s list was developed to highlight locations that illuminate stories of individuals who help “bring our country closer to its founding aspirations of equality” during our country’s 250th birthday, taking place on July 4, 2026, marking the Semiquincentennial (aka 250 years) of the Declaration of Independence. Since its founding, our country of 340,000,000 people has millions of stories that are told in thousands of different languages, joyful, sad, surprising, and all part of the American story.

One of the 2026 endangered sites is Angel Island, the portal for immigration from the East. From 1910 to 1940, Angel Island Immigration Center in the San Francisco Bay was the western port of entry for immigrants to the U.S., processing 1,000,000 people. While it is associated with Asian immigration, people came by ship from Punjab, Russia, the Philippines, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and Latin America, as well as Jewish people fleeing Nazi rule in Europe during WWII. Their walls contain carved poetry and memorials in various languages, and their vault archive draws upon historical records dating back to 1851. They have preserved photos, poetry, immigrant files collected after the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, and documentation of prisoners of war from Germany, Italy, and Japan from 1942 to 1946. Stories of detention due to disease, stories of families reunited or separated, stories of royalty and celebrity, and stories of people held after their journey and then sent home are all stored in their vault.

Another important endangered site on the 2026 National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list is Tule Lake, the largest of the WWII Japanese American Incarceration camps. With a peak population of 18,700, Tule Lake [War Relocation Center] and nearby Camp Tulelake were both used to incarcerate Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In 1943, after the U.S. government deployed a flawed “loyalty questionnaire” to determine the allegiance of incarcerated Japanese Americans, Tule Lake became a segregation center. Punishment for Japanese Americans considered “disloyal” resulted in high-security conditions that more closely resembled a prison and led to resistance on the grounds of civil rights violations and some incarcerees’ renunciation of their own U.S. citizenship. While some lands are protected as a national park, over 1,000 acres are unprotected and in danger of being lost to history. The stories from Tule Lake examine what it means to be an American and how we respond when the tenets of our country are tested. Pilgrimages to these incarceration sites around the country, at Minidoka, Poston, and Tule Lake, keep this important history alive for the next generations to help prevent us from repeating the mistakes of the past.

June is National Immigrant Heritage Month, with the goal of honoring and recognizing the contributions and diverse cultures of immigrants to the United States. In the stories of Americans who faced discrimination or xenophobia for an accent, a traditional dish, or looking like the enemy, there is still a belief in democracy and our Constitution. In the stories of Americans who have come by ship, fleeing famine or war or just for employment and opportunity, there is the shared hope for a brighter future. At the Korematsu Institute, we believe all of their stories, their histories, and cultures, knit together to make up the fabric of the rich and diverse American story we all share.

References:
The Archives at Angel Island:
https://www.aiisf.org/vault/spotlight

Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages
https://www.jampilgrimages.org/

So, [after a pilgrimage to Tule Lake], then I decided I should be out there and tell my story.”

Jim Yamaichi shares his experience being branded “disloyal” at the Tule Lake Segregation Center:
https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=427D287D-990D-4914-BB28-F77BEC2BA0F1

National Park Service Tule Lake Webpage
https://www.nps.gov/tule/index.htm

Discover America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2026
https://savingplaces.org/stories/11-most-endangered-historic-places-2026

Tule Lake Committee
https://www.tulelake.org/