Trump administration to send migrant children to Army base once used as Japanese internment camp

Some immigrant children detained at the southern border will be sent to a U.S. Army base once used to intern Japanese-Americans during World War II as authorities seek new shelters to house an overflow of people crossing the border.

The Health and Human Services Department (HHS), which operates the Office of Refugee Resettlement, said it was activating facilities at Fort Sill Army Base near Lawton, Okla., as a temporary emergency shelter for children detained at the border. 

{mosads}The site also was used as a shelter in 2014 under the Obama administration. 

The department said the facility will have the capacity to hold 1,400 unaccompanied children, and that tours for elected officials, stakeholders and the press would be offered.  

The use of Fort Sill was first reported by Time. 

The Trump administration had been considering three bases to hold undocumented immigrant children, including Fort Benning, in Georgia, and Malmstrom Air Force Base, in Montana. 

It said those two locations were no longer being considered.

HHS said it will also conduct an assessment of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection site in Santa Teresa, New Mexico for potential use as a future shelter center. The Santa Teresa site would remain unoccupied but available for use in “urgent need” cases.

Undocumented migrant children who are unaccompanied must be sent to a government shelter under current U.S. law. HHS operates more than 150 facilities to house them, but has looked to new shelter space with a growing number of undocumented minors.