Migrant demands may tax military

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s request for the Pentagon to house migrants detained at the U. S. southern border and even help prosecute them is prompting concern about strains to the military.

“We shouldn’t be militarizing border enforcement,” Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, said.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis argues that the Pentagon is nonetheless obliged to provide help with border enforcement.

In recent days Mattis has accepted requests by the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to provide temporary housing on Air Force and Army bases for potentially tens of thousands of detained migrant families and unaccompanied children.

“We have housed refugees, we have housed people thrown out of their homes by earthquakes and hurricanes; we do whatever is in the best interest of the country,” he said of the military.

The Pentagon says it received a Homeland Security request to house up to 12,000 detained migrant family members, starting with shelters for 2,000 people to be available within 45 days. The initial shelters are likely to be at Fort Bliss in Texas, but subsequent tent cities could be at two other bases in border states.

These shelter operations, which could last for months, are to be run by DHS or HHS or their contractors, not the Pentagon, but defense officials said it is possible the Pentagon will end up erecting the shelters.

No steps have been taken yet to move migrants onto the bases.

Mattis has emphasized that members of the military will not be directly