Indiana’s Camp Atterbury and New Jersey’s Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will be temporarily used to detain immigrants lacking permanent legal status, according to a directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth announced the decision in a Tuesday letter to Rep. Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), the House Committee on Armed Services and other members of Congress outlining that both locations would be for “temporary use by the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] to house illegal aliens.”

The news surfaced widely Friday as Democrats publicly criticized the move.

Hegseth in the letter also stated this will not affect military activities in the camps.

“The Secretary approved a Department of Homeland Security request for assistance to use real property at Camp Atterbury, Indiana and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey to establish temporary soft-sided holding facilities,” an official from the Department of Defense (DOD) told The Hill in a statement.

The letter did not........

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