US migrant crisis: Navy proposes to house tens of thousands of people in tent city on former airfield, reports say

The US Navy has proposed constructing tent cities on abandoned airfields to house thousands of immigrants detained under President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, according to a new report.

A Navy draft memo reportedly identified five locations for the “temporary and austere” tent cities, which could house nearly 50,000 people. The Navy reportedly drafted the plan in anticipation of requests from the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, after Mr Trump ordered them to assist in housing migrant families detained under his “zero tolerance” immigration policy.

The memo suggests a possible 47,000-person tent city at a former airfield outside San Francisco, according to Time, which first obtained the document. Another possibility is Camp Pendleton, a military training facility on the Southern California coast.

Two more possible locations, housing 25,000 people each, have reportedly been identified at abandoned airfields in Alabama. The memo also suggests further study of housing opportunities at a Marine Corps Air Station near Yuma, Arizona.

The numbers greatly exceed the 20,000 migrants the Defence Department said it was preparing to house on military bases this week. That plan – announced by Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant colonel Michael Andrews on Thursday – was condemned by immigrants' rights advocates, who felt it was a hastily constructed solution to the migrant crisis.

The memo estimates it would cost about $233m (£176m) to construct and operate a 25,000-person facility for a six-month time period, according to Time. It suggests the tent city should be built to last between six months and a year. It also estimates that construction of a 5,000-person facility would take 60 days, with 10,000 more people being added each month.

The memo was reportedly written by Phyllis L Bayer, the assistant secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment. It recommends Navy secretary Richard Spencer sign off on the plan and send it to defence secretary James Mattis for approval.

Captain Gregory Hicks, the chief Navy spokesman, told The Independent it would be “inappropriate to discuss internal deliberative planning documents”.

A spokesperson for Camp Pendleton referred requests for comment to the Department of Defence, which did not respond. The Marine Corps Air Station Yuma also did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr Trump ordered the Defence Department to aid in the housing of migrant families this week, after facing backlash for his "zero tolerance" policy that resulted in the separation of more than 2,000 migrant children from their families at the border.

Responding to the public outcry, Mr Trump signed an executive order requiring families to be kept together while facing prosecution for illegal border crossings. He also directed the Secretary of Defence to take “all legally available measures” to identify existing facilities to house these families, and to construct such facilities if necessary.

Human rights groups have criticised the order, saying it could result in the indefinite detention of migrant families. The UN Human Rights Council said on Friday that the detention of child immigrants could amount to "torture," and called on the Trump administration to reunite the families that had already been separated.