Crystal City Internment Camp - Establishment of Camp

Establishment of Camp

Crystal City was one of the largest camps in Texas, along with Camp Kenedy and Camp Seagoville. Camp Kenedy, a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp located near San Antonio, was the largest internment camp for male aliens from Latin America. Camp Seagoville, located south of Dallas, was a former women’s prison designed as a college campus that later retooled as a detention facility. In January 1943, the Crystal City internment camp was opened because Camp Seagoville was too small and could not hold families brought from Latin America as well as the domestic incarcerees. Before the War, Crystal City had been a migrant labor camp that was surrounded by fields of the area’s most profitable crop, spinach. All of the families from Camp Seagoville were moved to Crystal City except for couples without children, a few couples with toddlers, and unmarried females who remained at Camp Seagoville. The camp is named after the city where it is located, Crystal City, which is located 110 miles south of San Antonio.