A federal lands bill headed to the president will give national park status to the site on Bainbridge Island where 227 Japanese-Americans reported before being sent to internment camps in 1942.

Congressman Jay Inslee championed this effort the last couple years. Today he got his victory when the House of Representatives passed a package of bills dealing with federal properties that included his. (This package also included creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness)

According to Inslee's office, the designation will be given to the former Eagledale Ferry Dock.

"This memorial proclaims that we should never again sacrifice liberty at the altar of fear," Inslee said in a press release issued after the vote. [Link]