This June 20, 2014 file photo shows the Southwest Key-Neva Esperanza, in Brownsville, Texas, a facility that shelters unaccompanied immigrant children. Overwhelmed by the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children, the state of Texas relaxed its standards for the shelters that house them, easing rules governing how much space each child needs and what kind of facilities they should have. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)
WASHINGTON D.C. (WSAU) – The Justice Department laid out a groundbreaking lawsuit on Thursday afternoon against the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children in the United States, alleging years of “severe” sexual abuse against children at the facilities by employees of the taxpayer-funded organization.
According to the New York Post, employees at Southwest Key, which includes supervisors, took part in “severe sexual abuse and rape, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for sexually inappropriate relationships, sexual comments and gestures, leering, and inappropriate touching,” with children who range from five years old to 17 years old in their care since at least 2015.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra denounced the organization in a statement on Thursday, saying, “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination,” as the DOJ provided graphic details of abuse in their lawsuit that featured victims such as a 5-year-old girl, an 8-year-old girl, and an 11-year-old girl at their Casa Franklin facility located in El Paso.
The organization was founded by Dr. Juan Sanchez in Austin, Texas, in 1987 and is fully funded by taxpayer grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As of May, the organization had just shy of 7,800 children in their care across 29 migrant shelters in Texas, Arizona, and California and has seen its annual revenue skyrocket in recent years to over $300 million as the number of illegal migrant children has grown dramatically over the last decade. According to InfluenceWatch.org, the most recent finance report from 2017 showed that Southwest Key received more than $626 million in federal grants that year alone.
This lawsuit is not the first time the organization has found itself in legal trouble after founder Dr. Juan Sanchez was forced to resign in 2019 due to a federal investigation into the organization’s finances that alleged Southwest Key was engaging in “profiteering” while also seeing former employees charged with sexually abusing minors in their care in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Since 2021, an unprecedented number of minors traveling alone have entered the U.S. through the southern border. Up from 122,731 the year before, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that they received a record 128,904 unaccompanied minors in 2022 with most coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
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