Hundreds of children crammed into Texas air base after they tried to sneak across border from Mexico without their parents Thursday June 05,2014

A half-century-old section of a U.S. Air Force base in Texas has been transformed into a holding and processing center for thousands of children illegally crossing the border from Central and South America without adults

Leaked photos from the base, which were obtained by news website Breitbart, show hundreds of children holed up in crowded concrete rooms, many of them sleeping on the bare floor without blankets or pillows.

The minors flooding over the border are often teenagers leaving behind poverty or violence in Mexico and other parts of Central America such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala

They are sometimes seeking to reunite with a parent who is already in the United States, also without documentation.

Another facility for minors will open at Naval Base Ventura County in Southern California that will hold a maximum of 600 children.

At Lackland, the children between the ages of 12 and 17 are handed several sheets and towels when they arrive and checked for lice and scabies. 

US President Barack Obama said the sharp influx of unaccompanied children from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala was an 'urgent humanitarian situation'