WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Tuesday it had received an internal government request to house unaccompanied migrant children at two U.S. military facilities in Texas, amid a sharp rise in migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The request to the Pentagon by the Department of Health and Human Services is the first under President Joe Biden’s administration and seeks housing at Joint Base San Antonio and Fort Bliss, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. Kirby did not specify how many children might be housed at the bases.
“We have just received this request, so I don’t have much more detail than that. We’ll analyze it and evaluate it just like we would any other request for assistance,” Kirby said.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Leslie Adler)
