DOD approved a request for assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to temporarily house the children at a vacant dormitory at Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland. Children will also stay in a “suitable temporary housing facility” on an area of land on Fort Bliss outside El Paso, according to a Pentagon statement.

“DOD will provide HHS officials access to these locations immediately to begin initial actions to prepare for receiving unaccompanied migrant children as soon as preparations are complete.”

The military installations would house the children through the end of the calendar year under the initial requests from HHS, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters earlier on Wednesday.