AUSTIN, Texas, USA. —
Employees at the largest U.S. provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children repeatedly sexually abused and harassed their minor charges over at least eight years, the Justice Department said Thursday, listing a lengthy and shocking series of crimes that occurred as the company racked up billions of dollars in government contracts.
Southwest Key Programs Inc. employees, including supervisors, raped, groped or solicited sexual and nude images from minors in their care since at least 2015, the department alleged in a lawsuit filed this week. At least two employees have been indicted on criminal charges related to the allegations since 2020.
It was not immediately clear how many children are currently in the care of Southwest Key’s sprawling network of shelters, which span three states and can accommodate more than 6,300 children. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email asking whether it had recommended federal authorities remove children from the shelters or end government contracts with the nonprofit.
“In some instances, Southwest Key employees threatened children into silence,” the lawsuit states. “In harassing these children, these Southwest Key employees took advantage of the vulnerabilities, language barriers, and distance between these children and their families and loved ones.”
In a statement, Southwest Key said it is in the process of reviewing the complaint and questioned the company’s portrayal of the care it provides to children.
Austin-based Southwest Key is the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children, operating under grants from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It operates 29 shelters for migrant children: 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California. The group’s largest shelter is in Brownsville — on the premises of a former Walmart — and can accommodate 1,200 people.
The company has been a major but somewhat quiet player in the government’s response to the arrival in recent years of hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children and the separation of thousands of families in 2017 and 2018 under President Donald Trump. Washington awarded the supplier contracts worth more than $3 billion between 2015 and 2023.
Border Patrol is required to transfer custody of unaccompanied minors within 72 hours of their apprehension to HHS, which places most children in the care of parents or close relatives after a brief stay at Southwest Key or in shelters operated by other contractors.
HHS reported that as of June 17, there were 6,228 children across all of its contracted facilities, according to the most recent data on its website, which does not break down numbers by facility or provider. The agency declined to say how many children were currently in Southwest Key’s care or whether the department is still placing children in its care.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Austin, provided extensive details of some of the alleged abuses, noting that since 2015 authorities have received more than 100 reports of sexual abuse or harassment at the provider’s shelters.
Among the allegations detailed in the lawsuit: An employee “repeatedly sexually abused” three girls ages 5, 8, and 11 at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas. The 8-year-old girl told investigators that the worker “repeatedly entered their dormitories in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private areas,’ and threatened to kill their family members if they revealed the abuse.”
The lawsuit also alleges that an employee at the provider’s shelter in Tucson, Arizona, brought an 11-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sexual acts over several days in 2020.
Children were threatened with violence against themselves or their family members if they reported the abuse, the suit says. The complaint adds that the victims’ testimonies reveal that in some cases, staff knew about the abuse and did not report it or covered it up.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the complaint “raises serious concerns about the patterns or practices” of Southwest Key. “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy toward all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination,” he said in a statement.
Southwest Miracle spokeswoman Anais Biera said Thursday that the provider is still reviewing the lawsuit, which she said “does not present an accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to children and youth.”
Texas, like Florida, revoked permits for facilities housing migrant children in 2021 in response to an unprecedented surge of border crossings, creating what some critics say is a vacuum in oversight efforts.
The lawsuit was filed less than three weeks after a federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to lift special court oversight over HHS’s care of unaccompanied migrant children. President Joe Biden’s administration argued that new safety rules for the custody of migrant children made special court oversight, which was first put in place 27 years ago, unnecessary.
Special judicial oversight remains in place at the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Border Patrol.
Leecia Welch, an attorney for unaccompanied migrant children in the special supervision case, called the allegations against Southwest Key “completely repugnant” and blamed Texas’ withdrawal of permits for what she described as “a powder keg waiting to explode.”
“While I applaud efforts to right the painful wrongs these children have experienced, I hope the federal government will also take some responsibility for its role,” said Welch, deputy legal director for Children’s Rights.
Neha Desai, another lawyer involved in the case, called the allegations “extremely disturbing and shocking.”
“I hope the administration will take the most aggressive steps possible to ensure that the children currently in the Southwest Key facility are safe,” said Desai, immigration director at the National Center for Youth Law.
The offices of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment. Attorney generals in Arizona and California declined to comment on the litigation.
Southwest grew as unaccompanied children began crossing the border in large numbers in 2014, overwhelming federal authorities’ capacity.
The company found itself in the middle of immigration controversies and has steadfastly maintained that its mission was to provide quality care to children. Its facilities are called “houses.”
“A typical day for children in a Southwest home consists of breakfast, school, lunch, dinner, homework, snacks and bed,” the Justice Department said in its complaint.
