Pentagon considering raising cap on illegal immigrant children housed at bases

The Pentagon is considering extending its parameters for harboring illegal immigrant children on military bases.

The number of children seeking shelter at the three of the Pentagon’s military facilities is in flux, but close enough to the limit of an interagency agreement Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed onto that the Defense Department has to start making plans for exceeding that cap, according to Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.

Along with raising the limit on the number of children housed at military bases, the Pentagon is also in talks with the U.S. Department of Health and Human services to extend the number of days that the children can stay on government property, he said.

Under the current interagency agreement, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has committed the Pentagon to assisting 3,600 children for up to 120 days. Per the agreement, the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to reimburse the Pentagon for costs associated with that support.

Col. Warren declined to go into the specifics surrounding a potential new agreement.

“I don’t know what the discussions are for an extended period of time,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that more than 52,000 children have flooded over the border and into the United States since the fiscal year began in October. Most of the migrants come from Central America and are entering the United States through the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, according to the Wall Street Journal.