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Posted on 06/21/2018 1:55:53 PM PDT by jazusamo
The Trump administration may place up to 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children on military bases starting as early as next month, according to a new Pentagon memo.
The notification, sent to lawmakers on Wednesday and first reported by The Washington Post, says the Defense Department received a request for assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“HHS has requested DOD determine its capabilities to provide up to 20,000 temporary beds for unaccompanied children at DOD installations,” the document states.
If the Pentagon finds that it can provide such lodging, “the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) requests the facilities be available for occupancy as early as July through December 31, 2018.”
HHS personnel or contractors would run the sites, providing care to the children, “including supervision, meals, clothing, medical services, transportation or other daily needs,” the memo states.
The Defense Department “would be fully reimbursed” for all expenses as stipulated by the Economy Act, the document adds.
Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday said the military would house immigrant children if asked by the administration.
“We’ll see what they come in with. We support DHS, and right now this is their lead, and we’ll respond if requested,” Mattis told reporters outside the Pentagon.
Pressed on the issue, Mattis listed other situations when the military has housed people in need.
“We have housed refugees,” he said. “We have housed people thrown out of their homes by earthquakes and hurricanes. We do whatever is in the best interest of the country.”
Mattis spoke just before President Trump signed an executive order intended to end family separations at the U.S. southern border, attempting to staunch the controversy over the administration's “zero-tolerance” policy on illegal immigration.
Announced in April, the policy has led to an estimated 2,000 children being separated from their adult guardians and placed in detention centers while the adults await prosecution for illegally crossing the border.
DOD has not yet officially received a request from HHS to house migrant children but if it does, Trump’s executive order directs that Mattis “take all legally available measures to provide the Secretary of Homeland Security, upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families,” the memo notes.
The executive order also says that the Pentagon must “construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law.”
The administration for months has eyed military bases as possible holding sites for illegal migrants.
HHS officials in May targeted four military bases to visit determine whether they were suitable to house minors separated from their families.
Three of the bases visited are in Texas – Army base Fort Bliss; Dyess Air Force Base, near Abilene; and Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo – and one is in Arkansas, Little Rock Air Force Base.
Using military bases to house minors is not unprecedented. The Obama administration in 2014 used Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Naval Base Ventura County in Southern California and Fort Sill, Okla., to house 7,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America.
This story was updated at 4:31 p.m.
Send them to gitmo.
Ya mean all those bases we closed across the nation?
Yes. Get them out of the interior first and foremost.
Send them home in shipping containers
NO
Use any means necessary, just send them home.
Just send them all home...NOW!
Send the ones over 17 to Parris Island, San Diego, Lackland, or Great Lakes.
I’m sure they’ll find something for them to do to earn their right to stay. . .
The only way to win against such constant demagoguery is to build the wall and make sure they never reach U.S. soil in the first place. So long as any of them are here, the Left will spend 24/7 concocting new things to be “outraged” about.
These are closed bases in northern California,
http://www.formerbases.com/california_northern.htm
Other former bases nationwide,
http://www.formerbases.com/index.htm
20,000?!!..HOLY CHIT!!! That’s OUTRAGEOUS!! Let ALL THE LIBERALS house them and feed them WITHOUT ONE SINGLE dime from the taxpayers!!!
Sick of this. Arrest them. Finger print them. Deport immediately - no hearings of any kind.
End ALL welfare to non-citizens. End all education for non-citizens. Start arresting employers.
NOW!
Good Lord, military daycare for 20,000 criminals? WTH?.
Trump is letting them and the press manipulate him using the patently false narrative. Just dump them in Mexico with a liter of water and a Cliff Bar.
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I am referring to parents not kids lol
That’s the sound of the Trump Presidency circling down the drain.
I think Sheriff Arpaio’s outdoor prison tents in Maricopa Count aren’t being used any more.
Thanks. California got butchered...
If we send the children to Gitmo, we’ll have to keep them away from the Muzzzies there...otherwise they will have a “fun” time indoctrinating them to the ways of Islam.
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