The Pentagon has been asked to find or make room on U.S. military bases for up to 12,000 additional people who are members of migrant families, bringing the total number of beds requested for immigrants who crossed the southern border illegally to 32,000.
“It’s up to 20,000 beds for kids and up to 12,000 beds for families,” said Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
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The latest request from the Department of Homeland Security asks the Pentagon to first look around to see if it has existing facilities that could house “an alien family population of up to 12,000 people.”
If there are no existing facilities available, then DHS is requesting the military begin to construct tent cities, referred to as “semi-separate, soft-sided camp facilities,” to house up to 4,000 people at three separate locations.
DHS says the camps need to be located in border states Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, or California in order to comply with a court ruling known as the Flores Settlement that requires “reasonable efforts be made to place minors in the geographic area where the majority are apprehended.”
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has already committed to provide up to 20,000 beds at two bases in Texas to house unaccompanied minors — Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base — but DHS is now asking for three more facilities at other locations.
