Trump administration plans to build largest US federal migrant detention center on military base

While the facility is being built on a military base, the Department of Homeland Security is expected to be responsible for the migrants

Trump's administration is also building other facilities to hold migrants. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

US president Donald Trump's administration is aiming to construct the largest federal migrant detention facility in the United States on a military base in Texas, the Pentagon said on Thursday, the latest move to use military resources to make good on his immigration agenda.

Trump has stepped up arrests of immigrants in the US illegally, cracked down on unlawful border crossings, and stripped legal status from hundreds of thousands of migrants. Since taking office this year, Trump has sent migrants to Guantanamo Bay naval base, though in far fewer numbers than planned.