Pentagon approves HHS request to host migrant children at 2 Texas military bases

Pentagon approves HHS request to host migrant children at 2 Texas military bases

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At the San Antonio-Lackland Joint Base, children will be in an empty dormitory, and in Fort Bliss, temporary housing will be built on an empty lot, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

HHS will have access to the sites “immediately” to prepare to receive the children and the agency “will maintain custody and responsibility for the welfare and support of these children at all times during the installation,” said Kirby.

The approval comes as a flow of unaccompanied migrant children continues on the southern border. Federal law requires that children detained at the border be handed over to HHS – the agency in charge of their care – within 72 hours.

But amid restrictions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and the fast pace of arrivals, government officials have been rushing to find suitable shelters for unaccompanied minors, using convention centers and emergency entry locations to transfer them from the Patrol’s facilities. US border, designed to prosecute adults, does not care for children.

The Border Patrol detained more than 11,000 unaccompanied migrant children between February 28 and March 20, according to preliminary government data reviewed by CNN, already overshadowing the number of minors detained throughout February.

As of Sunday, 822 children had been detained at the Border Patrol facilities, in conditions similar to those in a prison, for more than 10 days, according to documents obtained by CNN. The average detention time for unaccompanied minors continues to be around 130 hours, exceeding the legal limit of 72 hours.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week that President Joe Biden does not believe that conditions at the Customs and Border Protection facilities are acceptable and that the government is working to remove children from these facilities. ASAP.

“They are not made for children, which is why he wants to open more shelters and increase and streamline processing at the border,” Psaki told CNN’s Jake Tapper in “The Lead” on Monday. “And this is a problem that he focuses on every day.”

Kirby said on Wednesday that the bases will begin to shelter unaccompanied migrant children “as soon as preparations are completed” and insisted that the arrangements “will not negatively affect military training, operations, readiness or other military requirements, including the readiness of the military.” National Guard and Reserve “.

CNN’s Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.

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