The Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently filed a lawsuit against Southwest Key Programs, accusing the organization of enabling the sexual abuse and exploitation of illegal immigrant children within its care facilities.
These facilities are intended to provide temporary shelter for these children as they await sponsorship within the United States. Southwest Key Programs, a non-profit organization, has been contracted by the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration and is currently the largest provider of housing services for unaccompanied children in the nation.
According to The Post Millennial, the lawsuit alleges that the staff of Southwest Key Programs have consistently protected each other while engaging in predatory behavior towards the children housed in their facilities. In the fiscal year of 2024 alone, the Biden administration has allocated $1 billion to Southwest Key Programs, with the Department of Homeland Security providing the majority of the funding and the Department of Education contributing a portion.
The federal government's most recent substantial payment to the organization was made in May 2024, amounting to over $470 million. A smaller sum of $15 million was disbursed in June. Since 2019, Southwest Key Programs has received over $4 billion in payments, with a notable increase in funding under the Biden administration, possibly due to the surge of illegal immigrants at the southern border following the implementation of more lenient border security policies.
The lawsuit provides a disturbing account of the alleged abuses: "From at least 2015 through at least 2023, multiple Southwest Key employees have subjected unaccompanied children in their care to repeated and unwelcome sexual abuse, harassment, and misconduct and a hostile housing environment, including 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."
The lawsuit further alleges that Southwest Key employees have exploited the children's vulnerabilities, language barriers, and distance from family to silence them. The victims range from as young as five years old to teenagers nearing adulthood.
This lawsuit coincides with increasing reports revealing the horrific conditions unaccompanied minors often face after entering the US. The Biden administration's policy of transferring illegal immigrant children to "sponsors" within the US has also been criticized, as it has been discovered that many unaccompanied minors have been placed in homes associated with criminal activity and labor trafficking.
The lawsuit includes specific instances of abuse, such as a Southwest Key Youth Care Worker who, in 2022, repeatedly sexually abused a five-year-old girl, an eight-year-old girl, and an eleven-year-old girl at Casa Franklin in El Paso, Texas. The eight-year-old girl reported that the worker would frequently enter their bedrooms at night to touch their 'private area,' and threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.
Another example from the lawsuit describes an incident in March 2022, where a twelve-year-old girl at Casa Franklin reported that a teacher's assistant intentionally placed his hand on her lower back and buttocks. The child reported that the assistant would always request that she stand at the back of line-ups when walking in the shelter and only removed his hand when another teacher approached.
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