Several buildings at North Fort Hood are being considered to house unaccompanied minors who have been crossing the border from Mexico to Texas, an official said.

However, the buildings are also in the same area the National Guard wants to use for soldiers who train at North Fort Hood throughout the year.

Through conversations with the Texas National Guard, U.S. Rep. John Carter’s office said the Guard plans to use some of those buildings on a permanent basis. However, those plans may be getting pushed further back now that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is eyeing those buildings to house the children.

For decades, the National Guard has regularly trained at North Fort Hood, which is close to Gatesville.

“Every minute of every day our Texas National Guard should be a higher priority than unaccompanied illegal minors,” said Carter, R-Round Rock, in a statement Friday to the Herald. “It is unfathomable that President Obama would jeopardize our national security, further burden our military, and delay important training to our National Guardsman so we can temporarily house noncitizens who are entering this country illegally.

“Our military installations first and foremost should be used to train, prepare, and house our men and women of uniform who put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms. Not for a few hundred illegal immigrants who have no business being in our country in the first place.”

Fellow U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin, is also against the move to house the immigrants at Fort Hood. He and Carter, who represent portions of Fort Hood in their districts, sent a letter to the president and others last week urging officials not to house the immigrants on post.

Fort Hood referred all questions on the issue to Health and Human Services.

“At this time, we have no additional information to provide,” HHS spokeswoman Andrea Helling said.

The National Guard did not respond to questions.

Illegal entry

Many Central American migrants who try to reach the United States say they are fleeing rampant violence, widespread poverty and lack of economic opportunity.

The increase in children traveling without family are due to many factors, federal officials have said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said 10,588 unaccompanied minors crossed in October and November, up from 5,129 during the same two months of 2014.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday extended the deployment of National Guard troops at the Mexico border due to a spike in the number of unaccompanied minors entering the country.

The uptick has already prompted Border Patrol to open two shelters in Texas and one in California.

“Texas will not sit idle in the face of this challenge,” Abbott said. “We will not be victimized as a state by a federal government’s apathetic response to border security.”

Former Gov. Rick Perry first deployed National Guard troops to the border in 2014.

He sent more than 1,000, though only a few hundred have remained in recent months.

The Obama administration is hoping to avoid a repeat of the crisis it saw in summer 2014, when tens of thousands of children and families poured over the border.

Border Patrol holding areas became overcrowded, with children sleeping on concrete floors covered by aluminum foil-like blankets.

The surge in children arriving without parents overwhelmed the U.S. government and the White House labeled it “a humanitarian crisis.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.