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Defense Minister Beit Higseth says that the rules in Indiana and New Jersey can include migrants detained without affecting military readiness – a step towards detaining thousands of people on the ground on the American soil.
Higgseth reported members of both countries this week of the proposal to temporarily adopt the migrants detained in the Atberry camp in Indiana, and the McGuire-Dix-Lakhehrst in New Jersey.
President Donald Trump has moved to the detention and deportation of people in the country illegally, a batch that has swept large numbers of immigrants, including many previous criminal records, and forcing federal authorities to find places to accommodate them.
Higseth said that the presence of detainees will not negatively affect the processes or training of the rules. The officials did not say when the detainees could start access to the facilities or if there are other military bases under study.
Speaking to journalists outside the White House, Tom Human told Trump’s border that there are about 60,000 beds currently available for detained immigrants, and the goal is to expand to 100,000.
“We are looking for any bed space available that we can get and that meet the standards of detention that we are accustomed to,” Homan said on Friday. “The more we get the family, the more people we can take off the street.”
Democratic lawmakers from both countries and civil rights advocates condemned the idea of housing migrants in the bases, and they doubted the influence of military resources and the justification of many beliefs.
“The use of the army of our country to detention and lift uncomfortable migrants endanger military alert and pave the way for raids (enforcement of immigration and customs) in every society in New Jersey,” said the Democratic Delegation in New Jersey in a statement.
Democratic Deputy Andre Carson of Indiana said his questions about the circumstances of the detainee were not answered by the Trump administration.
He referred to the concerns raised about the circumstances in other facilities and said: “The fact that ICE has been detained so much that they now need to expand the detention space in Indiana’s state of Indiana is annoying.”
Amoul Sinha, CEO of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Jersey, said in a statement that housing migrants in military facilities are putting a dangerous precedent “and it is a violation of the values included in our constitution.”
Both the rules set by Higseth of Afghan or Ukrainian refugees have included in recent years.
During Trump’s first administration, he authorized the use of military bases to detain migrant children – including army Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas.
In 2014, President Barack Obama temporarily relied on the military bases for detention of migrant children while intensifying family detention centers, which work in particular to hold many of the tens of thousands of Central American families that crossed the border.
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The Associated Press Christine Fernando and Darlin Superville in Washington contributed to this report.