The US will use military facilities to house underage migrants

The US will use military facilities to house minor migrants. (Illustrative photo: US Customs and Border Protection-Flickr)

After registering an increase in the number of unaccompanied minor migrants At the border, the United States Department of Defense announced yesterday that it will allocate some military facilities to house them.

This operation will be carried out in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and will aim to temporarily host these young migrants at the military bases of San Antonio-Lackland and Fort Bliss, in the Texas state.

“The Department of Defense will give HHS officials access to these locations immediately to begin initial actions to prepare for the arrival of unaccompanied migrant children as soon as preparations are complete,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. .

According to the Department of Defense, HHS will be in charge of financing the operation, which will not negatively affect the preparation of the US Armed Forces.

Although the US authorities have made it clear that the border is currently closed due to the pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of migrants who have arrived in recent weeks, something that the Republican party attributes to the new measures. adopted by President Joe Biden.

Regarding this, the Biden administration indicated that the measures were implemented because it was necessary to adopt a more humane treatment and end the counterproductive immigration policies established by then-President Trump.

During February, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained more than 100,000 migrants at the border, representing a 28% increase over January.

According to official figures, 19,246 of those detained were family units and almost 9,500 were unaccompanied minors.

Similarly, the American Immigration Council policy study center indicated that 72% of the people who arrived at the border were returned to Mexico.

For her part, Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the White House, indicated that despite the fact that most of the people are returned because the border is closed by Covid-19, minors are allowed to stay so as not to subject them to the danger of a ride back.

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