The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to close three military facilities that have been used to house undocumented immigrant children apprehended at the southern U.S. border.

The military facilities will stop housing undocumented minors over the next two months. The first facility to close will be Fort Sill in Oklahoma, which will shut down by the end of this week. The other two facilities -- Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and Naval Base Ventura County in California -- are scheduled to close in the next two to eight weeks.

According to the HHS, 20,000 undocumented children entered the U.S. in May and June. Among the three military facilities, the posts housed more than 7,700 undocumented migrants.

"To prudently manage its resources, HHS will be suspending these temporary facilities," said an HHS department spokesperson, according to Politico. "We are able to take this step because we have proactively expanded capacity to care for children in standard shelters, which are significantly less costly facilities. At the same time, we have seen a decrease in the number of children crossing the southwest border."

The Fort Sill facility has the capacity to house 1,200 children but has seen its number dwindle 190. Lackland reportedly hosts 400 undocumented children, while Ventura has the fewest number with 112 children. The average stay for an undocumented minor at the military facility is 35 days.

By law, HHS is required to handle the cases of unaccompanied immigrant minors within 72 hours of their being caught by border security. On normal circumstances, the unaccompanied children are under the case of HHS until reunited with a sponsor, either a family member or guardian, and await a deportation hearing from immigration court.

HHS was able to house undocumented children in the military facilities in partnership with the Department of Defense. The Daily Caller noted the three bases were contracted with the HHS for 120 days. Renovations have been scheduled for the three military posts with the HHS set to pay the Defense Department approximately $57,000 per month for electricity and water costs.

As Latin Post reported, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed more than 57,000 unaccompanied and undocumented children from Central America, namely El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, have entered and apprehended while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between Oct. 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014. Although the Department of Homeland Security reported that the number of undocumented children crossing the border declined from nearly 2,000 per week to approximately 500 per week in July, the White House said up to 150,000 undocumented children will enter the U.S by 2015.

HHS spokesperson Kenneth Wolfe noted the military facilities could reopen again if the number of undocumented minors increase.

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