OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — U.S. Rep. Tom Cole says federal officials want to expand the use of military facilities like Fort Sill to house an increasing number of children from Central America who are caught trying to enter the country illegally.
The Republican from Moore said in a statement Friday that the Department of Health and Human Services wants to increase its capacity for the number of children being held at temporary shelters and extend the use of facilities until 2015.
Nearly 1,200 teenage boys and girls are being housed at Fort Sill in a barracks typically used by military troops for basic training.
Most of the children are placed with relatives or sponsors in the U.S. to await deportation hearings, but Cole says they need to quickly be returned to their home countries.