WASHINGTON — The US Navy plans to build sprawling detention centers for tens of thousands of immigrants on remote bases in support of President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy against unlawful migration, a report said on Friday.
According to a draft memo obtained by Time magazine, the navy plans to build “temporary and austere” tent cities to house 25,000 migrants across three abandoned air fields in Alabama, 47,000 people at a facility near San Francisco, and another 47,000 at a training center in southern California.
The document estimates the navy would spend $233 million to run a facility for 25,000 over six-months.
Asked for comment, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis said: “The Department of Defense is conducting prudent planning and is looking nationwide at DoD installations should DHS (Department of Homeland Security) ask for assistance in housing adult illegal immigrants.
“At this time there has been no request from DHS for DoD support to house illegal migrants.”
Meanwhile, the fate of 2,300 children wrested from their parents at the US border with Mexico remained unclear on Friday two days after Trump ordered an end to migrant family separations, as the president accused Democrats of spinning “phony” tales of suffering for electoral gain.
While the US leader bowed to global outrage over the splitting of families, conflicting messages were contributing to a sense of chaos in the handling of the crisis.
Government agencies were unable to say what would happen to the children already sent to tent camps and other facilities spread across the country while their parents were charged with immigration offenses.
Having been forced into a climbdown on the hot-button issue of immigration, Trump swung back into fighting mode — insisting he remained committed to the “zero tolerance” policy that aims to deter the flow of migrants from Central America.
“We must maintain a Strong Southern Border. We cannot allow our Country to be overrun by illegal immigrants as the Democrats tell their phony stories of sadness and grief, hoping it will help them in the elections,” he tweeted.
Trump continued to make political hay out of the crisis, accusing Democrats of “playing games” and not supporting tougher border policies. To fellow Republicans, his message was to “stop wasting their time on Immigration” until after the November midterm congressional elections.
On Thursday, divided congressional Republicans failed to pass one immigration reform bill, and a second proposal that includes language ending family separations was put off until next week.
While Melania Trump sought to demonstrate concern with a surprise visit to migrant children at the border on Thursday, the administration remained under siege amid continued accounts of parents unable to find their children and no system in place for reuniting them.
Lawyers working to reunite families said they were struggling to navigate a labyrinthine process.
“It's very difficult to reunite children with their parents because these government agencies were not prepared, and they're not designed, for family separation,” said Efren Olivares, a lawyer with the Texas Civil Rights Project that represents 381 migrant parents.
Near Washington, protesters shouting “Shame!” demonstrated early Friday outside the home of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, two days after Trump announced her department would take over the handling and processing of families at the border.
Some reunifications were taking place, though it was unclear whether they involved the 700 children taken from parents between October and April, or the 2,300 since the mandatory prosecution of illegal border-crossers, whose children were taken away as a result, began in early May.
Others remained in painful limbo.
— AFP
