WASHINGTON – The Health and Human Services Department is considering housing at military bases those children picked up crossing the U.S. border illegally either alone or after being separated from their parents by the government.

Two U.S. officials described the plan under consideration to The Associated Press. One official says the department is looking at four bases in Texas and Arkansas.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public or made final.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is defending the Trump administration’s practice of separating children from parents when the family is being prosecuted for entering the U.S. illegally.

Nielsen told a Senate committee Tuesday that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens in the U.S. every day.