Feds sue migrant shelter nonprofit over 'severe sexual abuse and rape' of children

AUSTIN, Texas (CN) — The U.S. Department of Justice has sued the nation’s largest operator of migrant child shelters, Southwest Key Programs Inc., claiming it allowed employees to repeatedly sexually abuse children in its care.

Migrant children who enter the U.S. without a parent or guardian are placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal agency that contracts with private shelter operators including Southwest Key to house them. Southwest Key is the largest of these contractors, with 29 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California. According to the lawsuit filed Wednesday, between 2015 and 2023 Southwest Key received over $3 billion from the federal government to house migrant children.

During this time, federal prosecutors say, numerous migrant children in the nonprofit’s care were subjected to sexual abuse, assault and harassment by Southwest Key employees. This amounts to sex-based housing discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act, according to the Justice Department.

In an email, Southwest Key spokeswoman Anais Biera Miracle said the complaint “does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children” the nonprofit cares for.

“We are in constant communication and continue to closely partner with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), as we have done so for the past two decades to ensure the children and youth entrusted to our care are safe with us during their short stay with Southwest Key,” Miracle said.

In the complaint, federal prosecutors lay out numerous cases of sexual abuse by Southwest Key staff, including one instance where a supervisor repeatedly raped and threatened a teenage girl at a shelter in Texas.

In another instance, a Southwest Key youth care worker sexually touched teenage boys while transporting them from shelters. Although the care worker admitted to inappropriately touching a child, Southwest Key’s internal investigation deemed the incidents “unsubstantiated,” according to the complaint. A federal grand jury later indicted the worker on three counts of sexual contact with children.

“In harassing these children, these Southwest Key employees exploited the children’s vulnerabilities, language barriers, and distance from family and loved ones,” the Justice Department says in the complaint.

The Justice Department seeks monetary damages to compensate the children harmed, as well a civil penalty and a court order requiring Southwest Key to take appropriate steps to prevent such abuse in the future.

“Sexual harassment of children in residential shelters, where a child should be safe and secure, is abusive, dehumanizing and unlawful,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “Sexual abuse of children is a crisis that we can’t ignore or turn a blind eye to. This lawsuit seeks relief for children who have been abused and harmed, and meaningful reforms to ensure no child in these shelters is ever subjected to sexual abuse again.”