WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2019) Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has approved a request by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide assistance to help house the heavy flow of asylum-seeking migrants being apprehended and processed at the US-Mexico border, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Chris Miller said in a press release.
"The Acting Secretary of Defense has approved a May 9, 2019 request for assistance from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to construct temporary facilities to house and care for a minimum of 7,500 total single adult male and female aliens that have been processed by Customs and Border Protection and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Enforcement Removal Operations custody," Miller said on Wednesday.
The assistance is being provided to DHS to help address the humanitarian and security crisis on the southern border, Miller said.
The Defense Department will loan DHS tents to use as temporary migrant housing facilities in the states of Arizona and Texas, Miller said. He added that the tents will be constructed in about two weeks, however, they will not be operated by military personnel.
An increasing number of migrants from Central America have been arriving to the US border in recent months. US President Donald Trump has called the surge of arrivals a crisis and in February declared a national emergency in order to secure funds to build the border wall.
The Trump administration has been making efforts to stop illegal migration into the United States, even threatening to close the southern border or impose tariffs on Mexican vehicles imported into the United States.
