In a step toward separating families who cross the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump administration is preparing to detain immigrant children on military bases, according to the Defense Department.

These used to be called “Internment Camps.” https://t.co/zl9CwYlXjC — Jennifer Wright (@JenAshleyWright) May 16, 2018

According to the Washington Post, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reportedly evaluating three Air Force bases and one Army base, all located in Arkansas and Texas, over the next two weeks to determine whether the facilities could be used to house thousands of children who are expected to cross the border—with and without parents and guardians—in the coming months. According to DHS, families with minors make up about 40 percent of immigrants detained by border patrol agents.

As Clio Chang at Splinter News wrote, "Donald Trump’s administration has been arresting so many families—many of whom are Central Americans looking for asylum—that Health and Human Services is running out of space in its foster care facilities" for children.

The Obama administration previously used military bases to hold children who were detained by DHS, detaining about 7,000 minors over several months in Oklahoma, Texas, and California in 2014.

The Trump administration's plans to separate children from their parents has drawn widespread condemnation, with the National Immigration Law Center calling the plan "inhumane" and "shameful" earlier this month.

On social media, critics expressed anger over DHS's planned use of military facilities as detention centers for "warehousing" children and raised grave concerns over the long-term impact of forced detention and separation on families who are arriving in the U.S. to seek asylum.

21) It benefits no one--especially not the thousands of children involved--to take these kids from their parents at this crucial time of their lives. It's cruel, inhumane and will do irreparable damage to the children, physically and emotionally. But this is where we are now. — Rachel McGonagill (@RachelMcGonagi1) May 16, 2018

7) Are there counselors for the children? They will need them in abundance, for these are traumatized children, 1st by the land of their birth, and 2nd by the land they thought to be sanctuary. These counselors should be childhood trauma specialists, in particular. SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Never Miss a Beat. Get our best delivered to your inbox.





— Rachel McGonagill (@RachelMcGonagi1) May 16, 2018

ICE is building internment camps for children. What else would you call this? If we care about justice, we must #AbolishICE precisely bc of its extrajudicial structure (est. in 2003) that allows them to subvert due process with ZERO accountability. Not us, not now. #EliminaICE https://t.co/oW4v4wru8n — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) May 15, 2018

The US military is packing kids taken from their parents into concentration camps on US military bases — and I'll be legitimately shocked if it makes the front page. — dell cameron (@dellcam) May 15, 2018

Trump admin plan to separate kids from parents awaiting immigration hearings & concentrate abducted kids on military bases is a deliberately cruel racist authoritarian assault on basic human rights. — Joseph Robertson (@poet_economist) May 16, 2018

This is far beyond indecent & abusive. It is a direct attack on the right of people to remain free from cruel treatment by the state. — Joseph Robertson (@poet_economist) May 16, 2018