Legislation that expands the borders of Idaho’s Minidoka Interment National Monument is now law.

President Bush on Thursday signed into law a larger public lands bill that includes the Minidoka measure, as well as the bill to create Washington’s Wild Sky Wilderness.

Minidoka was one of 10 detention camps in the West and Arkansas that the federal government operated between 1942 and 1946. The camps held thousands of West Coast residents who were deemed a security risk because they had at least 1/16th Japanese ancestry.

The measure, authored by Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Larry Craig and Rep. Mike Simpson, allows the Minidoka monument to stretch its borders through a series of acquisitions of adjacent public and private land. Backers of the project have identified more than 200 acres to add, an amount that would more than triple the monument’s size.

The legislation also clears the way to allow private groups to raise money for the expansion and pay to refurbish the camp and rebuild a block of barracks.