Southwest Key Programs Inc., the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied illegal immigrant children, is facing charges of pervasive sexual abuse. It's alleged that employees and supervisors raped, fondled, and solicited sex and nude pictures from children in their care. At least two employees have been indicted on criminal charges in connection with the allegations since 2020.
Southwest Key Programs operates a vast network of shelters across three states. The 29 child migrant shelters — 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona, and two in California — can accommodate 6,300 children. The company’s largest shelter in Brownsville, Texas, is at a converted Walmart with a capacity of 1,200.
The company received $3 billion in government contracts from 2015-2023.
“In some cases, Southwest Key employees threatened children to maintain their silence,” the lawsuit states. “In harassing these children, these Southwest Key employees exploited the children’s vulnerabilities, language barriers, and distance from family and loved ones.”
In his desperation to make the unaccompanied children coming across the border disappear, the Biden administration placed the kids with unvetted sponsors. That's a scandal that's been unfolding with some of the sponsors determined to be selling the children into slavery.
But this is a government contractor that should be vetted thoroughly and closely monitored. That wasn't done, and the children are suffering because of it.
Health and Human Services reported 6,228 children at all of its facilities on June 17, according to the most recent data on its website, which does not break numbers down by shelter or provider. The department declined to say how many children are currently in Southwest Key’s care or if the agency continues to assign children to its facilities.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Austin, where Southwest Key is based, provides extensive details, saying authorities received more than 100 reports of sexual abuse or harassment at the provider’s shelters since 2015.
Among the lawsuit’s allegations: 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 told investigators that the worker “repeatedly entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area,’ and he threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.”
The lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge lifted a special oversight order of HHS’ care of unaccompanied migrant children. The Biden administration says it wasn't necessary because of all the extra "safeguards" it put in place.
How about now?
“While I applaud the efforts to right the grievous wrongs these children have experienced, I hope the federal government will also take some responsibility for the role it played,” said Leecia Welch, deputy legal director of Children’s Rights, an advocacy group.
Another attorney involved in court oversight, Neha Desai, called the allegations “profoundly disturbing and shocking.”
“I hope that the government takes the most aggressive measures possible to ensure that children currently placed at Southwest Key facilities are not in harm’s way,” said Desai, senior director for immigration at the National Center for Youth Law.
As long as the kids remain hidden from view, that's all Biden and HHS care about.
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