Immigrant children arrive at Holloman AFB

The children are being housed in a vacant building on the base that was formerly used by the 4th Space Surveillance Squadron.

Each child is in the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The children are between the ages of 14 and 17 and are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Most of them will likely not stay on the base longer than one month, according to officials.

The children will receive schooling and medical care from contractors hired by U.S. Health and Human Services.

According to Action 7 News partners at the Albuquerque Journal, the federal government is trying to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2014, when so many children crossed the border into the U.S. from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Those children were forced to stay in U.S. Border Patrol facilities, which aren`t designed to house children.

That situation also kept officers from securing the border.

Many in Alamogordo said they support the cause to keep the children at the base.

“We have to be humanitarians at all times, when it comes to children like this,” Eli Calles, who helps put on a local gun show, said.

But Calles added that many in the town are opposed to the idea of keeping kids at the base.

“I think a lot of folks are just curious as to how long they`ll be there and how much money is being spent keeping them there,” he said.

Many shelters normally ask for donations for the children, though Holloman AFB officials didn`t return calls when Action 7 News inquired if they were seeking or in need of donations.

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