A plan for the military to construct tent cities for illegal immigrants and unaccompanied minors on two bases is “on indefinite hold,” a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday, while the federal government looks for other options.
Mark Weber, an HHS spokesman, told the Washington Examiner that while planning has stopped, “there are other non-DoD properties and options being considered.”
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The statement is a marked contrast to the government’s position in June, when the request to the Pentagon was framed as desperately urgent.
With stepped up border enforcement and immigrants streaming into the southern states illegally, the Trump administration was calling on the U.S. military to prepare to house as many as 30,000 migrants, with separate camps for families and unaccompanied minors.
The Department of Homeland Security said it would need 2,000 beds within 45 days, and 10,000 more to follow in the coming months, in facilities it requested be built in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico or California.
[Previous coverage: Putting migrant children in tent cities costs $775 per person per night: Report]
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis pledged to meet the DHS requirements, and a scramble began to identify suitable sites. Two bases in Texas — Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base — were selected, and plans were drawn up.
Two months later, the urgency is gone, and it’s unclear if ground will ever be broken on either facility.
Pentagon officials say privately that the practical and logistical challenges of building long-term housing proved to be more daunting than initially anticipated.
While the military has the wherewithal to put up tents and construct mess halls, showers and latrines, the realities of putting a refugee camp on a U.S. military base for an indefinite time began to look like a less attractive option as time went by.
The Pentagon says most of the paperwork has been completed, including an environmental assessment at both Texas bases, but no construction will begin until DHS or HHS signs a memorandum of intent to use the facilities.
“The 45-day clock doesn’t start until then,” said Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
