The U.S. plans to house 5,000 migrant children at military bases

After the flow of migrants on the Mexico-U.S. border exponentially increased in the last months, driven by growing numbers of children and families, especially from Central America , the U.S. government has threatened Mexico with a border shutdown and economic sanctions, But the most severe actions were implemented against families, when the U.S. implemented a family-separation policy at the border , which resulted in hundreds of children being kept at enclosed facilities without their parents for months, many of whom haven't been reunited with their parents yet. Al so , thousands of migrant children have reported they were sexually abused while in government custody and other children have died after health complications while on U.S. custody.

Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has approved a request to identify military bases to potentially house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children, the Pentagon revealed on Wednesday.

In March, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requested support from the Pentagon to identify military bases where it could house unaccompanied migrant children through September 30.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis

said that Shanahan approved that request on Tuesday. Davis also said HHS had made no request to actually house the children so far.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he was not reviving a policy of separating children from parents who had illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border , one day after media reports that his administration was considering putting it back in place.

Last year, the U.S. military was asked to house up to 20,000 migrant children but the space was never used.

Thousands of families separated at Mexico-U.S. border

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