The Trump administration has settled on the Army’s Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas as the sites in which the Pentagon will build temporary housing facilities for immigrants who have entered the United States illegally across the southern border with Mexico, according to multiple reports.
“This is something that we can do,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters traveling with him to Asia on his plane Sunday. “Providing shelter for people without shelter, we consider that to be a logistics function that is quite appropriate.”
Mattis announced the two bases on Monday, according to several media outlets. The Pentagon has been told to prepare facilities for up to 20,000 unaccompanied minors, although its also possible the facilities will hold adults and families.
Mattis indicated that once “details are worked out,” military construction teams would begin erecting temporary camps, similar to tent cities used to shelter refugees from the Vietnam War in the 1970s.
“We have done this, some of you remember, with the Vietnamese boat people. Refugees were put in U.S. military bases for months as it was worked out and how they would be dealt with,” Mattis said.
The request for temporary shelter was made by the Department of Health and Human Services, which said it would reimburse the Pentagon for the costs and would operate the shelters and provided meals, clothing, and medical personnel.
The HHS request asked for camps to be ready by July, which is one week away.
