The Protection Division on Tuesday obtained a written request for help from the Well being and Human Providers Division to assist briefly home an inflow of kids fleeing Central America arriving on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Joint Base San Antonio and Fort Bliss, Texas, have been tapped to accommodate them, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby instructed reporters.
“We’ve got simply obtained this request, so I don’t have way more element than that,” he mentioned. “We’ll analyze it and consider it identical to we might another request for help, and we’ll hold you posted as we all know extra.”
Kirby didn’t know how many children can be housed on the installations, however mentioned that, “As I perceive it, at San Antonio, it’s to be used of a vacant dormitory, and at Fort Bliss, it’s use of some land.”
Since President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the U.S. has seen a dramatic spike within the variety of folks encountered by border officers.
There have been 18,945 relations and 9,297 unaccompanied kids encountered in February — a rise of 168 p.c and 63 p.c, respectively, from the month earlier than, in accordance with the Pew Analysis Heart. That creates an infinite logistical problem as a result of kids, specifically, require increased requirements of care and coordination throughout companies.
Among the many causes for the surge: hundreds of Central American migrants already caught on the border for months and the persistent scourge of gang violence afflicting Northern Triangle nations — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Nonetheless, the encounters of each unaccompanied minors and households are decrease than they had been at numerous factors throughout the Trump administration, together with in spring 2019.
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Army installations have housed unaccompanied immigrant kids earlier than, together with in 2012 and 2014.
“It’s not out of the norm for us to assist these sorts of requests, however once more, I don’t wish to get forward of the decision-making course of,” Kirby mentioned.
Latest tendencies have proven the Pentagon fulfilling all method of requests from different authorities companies, whether or not it’s the Homeland Safety Division requesting troops along the southern border, to the Federal Emergency Administration Company asking for troops to workers COVID-19 mass vaccination sites and the hundreds of National Guard members posted at the Capitol within the wake of the Jan. 6 rebellion.
This story comprises data from the Related Press.
