US Military Asked to House 5,000 Child Migrants: Pentagon

By Staff, Agencies

The US administration of President Donald Trump asked the Pentagon to prepare to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children amid what it calls a mounting “crisis” at the US-Mexico border, the Pentagon said Thursday.

In further details, the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] said it requested the Pentagon’s support to identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied ‘alien’ children on its installations, if needed, through September 30, 2019.

According to the Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis, the war department will work with the military services to identify potential locations for such support, and will work with HHS to assess any facilities or suitable land, which belongs to it, for potential use to provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied alien children.

This comes amid a surge in the number of families and unaccompanied children crossing the US border from Mexico, most of them fleeing poverty and violence in Central America. Most of them request asylum.