NASA staff being asked to help man border camps

NASA has emailed employees asking them to volunteer at border camps for unaccompanied chid migrants, reports say.

The space agency told its workers that the Department of Health and Human Services was looking for people to do 120 days of work to help manage the surge of migrants, according to The Intercept.

Several other government agencies also received the DHHS request, reports say.

The number of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border has increased dramatically over the past several months, with more than 170,000 in March alone, the highest figure in more than a decade.

Experts say that the surge is being driven by two hurricanes that hit Central America last year, displacing millions of people, as well as the economic impact of the pandemic.

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Joe Biden has said his administration is committed to reversing the family separation policies of Donald Trump, but have warned migrants to remain at home until they can re-establish a “humane” immigration policy.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees during a meeting last week that the administration was considering a plan to fill in the “gaps” in the border wall.

White Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday that “wall construction remains paused to the extent permitted by law.”

“When the administration took office funds had been diverted from congressionally appropriated military construction projects and other appropriated purposes toward building the wall,” she added.

“Federal agencies are continuing to review wall contracts and develop a plan to submit to the president soon. It is paused. There is some limited construction that has been funded and allocated for but it is otherwise paused.”