The largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children has engaged in the “severe, pervasive" sexual abuse and harassment of children in its care, the Justice Department alleges.
According to allegations made in a DOJ lawsuit filed Wednesday, Southwest Key employees, including supervisors, have raped, touched, or solicited sex and nude images of children in its care since at least 2015. According to the lawsuit, at least two employees have been charged since 2020.
Among the allegations is the repeated abuse of a 5-year-old in the care of a Southwest Key shelter in El Paso. In 2020, a youth care worker at the provider's Tucson, Arizona, shelter took an 11-year-old boy to a hotel for several days and paid the minor to perform sexual acts on the employee, the Justice Department alleges.
Children were threatened with violence against themselves or family if they reported the abuse, according to the lawsuit. It added that testimony from the victims revealed staff, in some instances, knew about the ongoing abuse and failed to report it or concealed it.
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Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the complaint “raises serious pattern or practice concerns” about Southwest Key. “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination,” he said in a statement.
On its website, Southwest Key said it has been an integral partner in the U.S. response to the immigration crisis at our southern border for more than two decades, "sheltering immigrant children under 18 years of age who arrive in this country without a parent or guardian. SWK works to reunify them with a parent, relative, or sponsor."
In the lawsuit, the DOJ said children in the care of Southwest Key ranged in age from 5 to 18. Southwest Key said most children in their care are between 13 and 17 years old and come from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
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"During the brief amount of time they are with us, we seek to provide refuge and care to assist in their future success," the company said. "After unification, we work to ensure safety and well-being in their new homes while connecting them to community services. Staff across 18 states serve youth nationwide who have been referred by ORR through our Home Study and Post-Rerelease Programs."
Based in Austin, Southwest Key is the largest housing provider to unaccompanied migrant children, operating under grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It has 29 child migrant shelters: 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California.
The lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to lift special court oversight of Health and Human Services’ care of unaccompanied migrant children. President Joe Biden's administration argued that new safeguards rendered special oversight unnecessary 27 years after it began.
The Associated Press left a message with the company seeking comment Thursday.
