Up to 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant children could be housed on military bases as early as July, The Boston Globe and other media outlets are reporting.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to provide temporary housing for immigrants as part of the president’s executive order (and immigration policy reversal), which ends the separation of children and adults at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mattis seemed undaunted by the Herculean task ahead.
“We have housed refugees. We have housed people thrown out of their homes by earthquakes and hurricanes,” Mattis said when asked about reports that the Department of Health and Human Services was eyeing four military bases to house detained immigrants, according to Politico. “We do whatever is in the best interests of the country.”
The notification was also sent to lawmakers on Wednesday, reported The Washington Post, indicating that the Defense Department received a request for assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Related: Here’s the Key to Making Trump’s Immigration Executive Order Work
The plan would be similar in nature to how the Obama administration housed 7,000 unaccompanied children on military bases in 2014, reported The Post.
Additionally, the plan “includes supervision, meals, clothing, medical services, transportation, or other daily needs,” and HHS representatives will be present at each location, according to a memo from the Pentagon to lawmakers.
“I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated,” said President Trump from the Oval Office on Wednesday. “It’s a problem that’s gone on for many years, as you know, through many administrations. And we’re working very hard on immigration. It’s been left out in the cold. People haven’t dealt with it, and we are dealing with it.”
Meanwhile, the first lady’s Thursday visits to Texas detention centers that house children under the age of 18 continue to reverberate. She and her staff have stayed steadfast in the face of mainstream media outcry about a jacket she was wearing, insisting that Melania Trump’s interest in the welfare of the children — and her very public visits to the children’s centers — should remain the focus.
Elizabeth Economou is a former CNBC staff writer and adjunct professor. Follow her on Twitter.
(photo credit, article image: Military Base, CC BY-SA 3.0, by Anton Holoborodko)
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