The Pentagon offers protection to illegals
Detained minors remain a problem for Donald Trump's government. Emigrants continue to be detained in facilities without conditions now that it has been decided to stop the separations of families. As a support to the government and the president, the Department of Defense of the United States announced the construction of a shelter for minors after entering the US territory illegally. According to reports, Goodfellow Air Force Base near San Angelo, Texas, was the military installation chosen to locate the new shelter. However, the works will not begin until the Department of Health and Services sends a formal request to the Pentagon.
Sources of the military force informed that once the request is received, the army will be able to begin clearing of the scrub.Also Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, said that details about how much capacity they needed were being detailed, as well as the kind of installation to be built. The military chief also revealed that the request for the construction of the facilities was made by the Department of National Security.
Since the issue of the separation of immigrant families became a humanitarian dilemma, the pressures of American public opinion grew stronger and the president was forced to stop such policy. The separations of the parents from the children began due to the legal technicality that adults can be tried and prosecuted, while the minors cannot, and the process can last for months.
Despite the claims, the president continues his crusade against illegal emigration to the United States, even comparing illegal immigrants with invaders trying to force their entry into the country. "We can not allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came", he twitted on June 24, 2018.
Several retired military officers have opposed the decision of the Department of Defense to build a refuge for migrants. In a letter written to Jim Mattis, they argued that the measure "increases the dangers by forcing US military forces to focus on asylum seekers and not on threats to national security", a reasonable fact from the strategic point of view, only that the military veterans do not perceive that their country is currently waging a "war" against the emigrants, stoked by its president who has spread the ill-founded emigration fear over the nation. As long as the president continues to name emigration as "invasion" and he considers his actions avital measure for "national security," the situation will not change.
"Sheltering thousands of migrants detained in these facilities for along period will divert important resources of central military functions, reduce the readiness of members of the militia, and limit their ability to protect our homeland and defend our interests abroad", the retired military officers wrote on the letter. And indeed, the United States Army is providing the necessary logistical support to the Department of Homeland Security that deals with immigration issues.
Jim Mattis has replied that housing people has precedent in the history of military assistance. "We have hosted refugees, people who have left their countries because of earthquakes and hurricanes; We do whatever is in the best interest of the country."Mattis recalled that the US Army has also provided refuge for decades to immigrants, including some who arrived in the United States after the Vietnam War.
In addition to the official response of the Department of Defense there was the fact that federal officials continue working on the legal framework for Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas, to receive immigrant families detained after crossing the border illegally.