Housing provider for migrant children sexually abused, Justice Department says

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children engaged in “severe and widespread” sexual abuse and harassment of children in its care over the past eight years, the Justice Department alleges.

Southwest Key employees, including supervisors, raped, groped or solicited sex and nude images from children since at least 2015, the Justice Department alleged in a complaint filed Wednesday. At least two employees have been charged since 2020, according to the complaint.

Austin-based Southwest Key is the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children, operating with grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It has 29 shelters for migrant children — 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California — that can house 6,350 children. The company’s largest shelter, located in Brownsville, has a capacity of 1,200.

According to the most recent data posted on its website, the Department of Health and Human Services reported 7,762 children in Southwest Key’s care as of May 31, which does not break down the numbers by shelter.

The children living there range in age from 5 to 17. Among the allegations is the repeated abuse of a 5-year-old child in the care of a Southwest Key shelter in El Paso. In 2020, a youth worker at the Tucson, Arizona, shelter took an 11-year-old boy to a hotel for several days and paid the minor to perform sex acts on the worker, according to the Justice Department.

According to the complaint, the children were threatened with violence against themselves or their families if they reported the abuse. Victims’ testimony revealed that in some cases, staff were aware of the ongoing abuse and either did not report it or hid it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the complaint “raises serious concerns about the practices” at 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.

The lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to lift special court oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services’ handling of unaccompanied migrant children. President Joe Biden’s administration has argued that the new protections render that special oversight unnecessary 27 years after it was enacted.

The Associated Press left a message with the company seeking comment Thursday.