Military bases to hold migrant children
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is making preparations to warehouse migrant children on military bases, according to Defense Department communications, the latest sign the government is moving forward with plans to split up families who cross the border illegally.
According to an email notification sent to Pentagon staffers, the Department of Health and Human Services will make site visits at four military installations in Texas and Arkansas during the next two weeks to evaluate their suitability for child shelters.
The bases would be used to hold minors under age 18 who arrive at the border without an adult relative or after the government has separated them from their parents. Health and Human Services is the government agency responsible for providing minors with foster care until another adult relative can assume custody.
The email characterized the site visits as a preliminary assessment. “No decisions have been made at this time,” it states.
An official at Health and Human Services confirmed the military site visits, speaking on condition of anonymity because the plans are not yet public. The official said Health and Human Services currently has the bed space to hold 10,571 children.
In a statement, the agency’s Administration for Children and Families said its programs require “routinely evaluating the needs and capacity of an existing network of approximately 100 shelters in 14 states.”
“Additional properties with existing infrastructure are routinely being identified and evaluated by federal agencies as potential locations for temporary sheltering,” the statement said.
Those facilities are at 91 percent capacity, an Health and Human Services official said, and the Trump administration’s crackdown plans could push thousands more children into government care.
The official said Homeland Security has not provided projections for how many additional children to expect.
Trump officials say they are moving forcefully to halt a sharp increase in the number of families crossing the border illegally this spring, many of whomare Central Americans seeking asylum. U.S. border agents arrested more than 100,000 illegal bordercrossers in March and April, the highest monthly totals since Donald Trump took office.
Trump has seethed at the increase, singling out Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for blame. He has ordered her to “close” the border and cut off the migration flows, which typically increase in spring with seasonal demand for rural labor.
Nielsen and Attorney General Jeff Sessions say the government will take the extraordinary measure of filing criminal charges against anyone who crosses the border illegally, including parents traveling with their children.
In most cases, that means adults will be held at immigration jails awaiting court dates while their children are sent to foster care.
“If you’re smuggling a child, then we’re going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law,” Sessions said in a speech last week.
“If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally” he added. “It’s not our fault that somebody does that.”
Children held in Health and Human Services custody spend an average of 45 days in the government’s care, the Health and Human Services official said, and they are provided with educational and recreational opportunities. The agency conducts background checks on potential sponsors for the minors, and in 85 percent of cases the children are released to a parent or other adult relative already present in the United States, the official said.