{"id":59585,"date":"2018-07-02T20:31:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T20:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/02\/immigrants-kids-could-outnumber-troops-4-1-at-texas-air-force-base\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:59:09","slug":"immigrants-kids-could-outnumber-troops-4-1-at-texas-air-force-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/07\/02\/immigrants-kids-could-outnumber-troops-4-1-at-texas-air-force-base\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant kids could outnumber troops 4-1 at Texas Air Force base"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If government plans go through, undocumented immigrant children could outnumber military personnel almost 4-to-1 at West Texas\u2019 Goodfellow Air Force Base<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World War II-era base stood up in the months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, as the United States began rapidly building up its pilot corps in the event of war. These days, it\u2019s home to about 5,500 airmen, Marines, soldiers and sailors who attend its joint fire-fighting school and a defense intelligence school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may soon be home to as many as 20,000 unaccompanied minors <\/a>who crossed into the U.S. illegally, based on a Health and Human Services Department request to DoD. It\u2019s one of two Texas bases \u2015 the other is the Army\u2019s Fort Bliss<\/a> \u2015 that should begin to absorb some of the thousands of immigrant families and unaccompanied children now in U.S. custody after crossing the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\t