The Pentagon approved the first of what is expected to be a series of requests to house migrant children at military bases across the nation, granting the Department of Health and Human Services access in Texas to dormitories and vacant land to construct temporary housing, while legislators in other states under consideration are already raising concerns.
HHS had been conducting site visits for a number of weeks at bases in Virginia and Texas, but it did not take DOD more than a few hours to approve a request on Tuesday. The use of military bases to house unaccompanied migrants is not without precedent, with several bases across the South used under the Obama and Trump administrations. The border surge now facing the Biden administration, however, challenges HHS and DOD to quickly ramp up facilities as thousands of migrants head north.
