135 children expected at ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ facility in Oklahoma
Federal officials say 135 children who were detained while trying to enter the U.S. illegally are expected at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, this weekend.
Kenneth J. Wolfe, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email Friday that the children will be held at the temporary Unaccompanied Alien Children program facility at the Army base.
The children, mostly teenagers from Central America, are among the more than 47,000 unaccompanied minors taken into custody at the border since October. Fort Sill is one of three facilities where the children are being held. The others are in Texas and California.
The Defense Department has authorized the facilities to stay open for 120 days as officials try to find the children’s families or place them with a sponsor.
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