“Multiple employees” of the largest housing provider for unaccompanied minors illegally crossing the U.S. southern border allegedly committed various forms of sexual abuse on children in their care, all while the nonprofit’s leadership turned a blind eye, a new lawsuit from the Department of Justice claims.
On Thursday, the DOJ announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Southwest Key Programs Inc., claiming that by either facilitating or ignoring the abuse, the nonprofit had violated the Fair Housing Act.
Both employees also reportedly threatened to harm or even kill the children or their families if they reported the abuse. Perhaps equally as abhorrent, other staff members at the shelters allegedly knew about the attacks and failed to report them.
Southwest Key runs a total of 29 shelters for unaccompanied migrant minors, 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona, and two in California. In all, Southwest Key can provide housing for 6,350 children.
Since at least 2015, some of the nonprofit’s employees have allegedly engaged in heinous acts of sexual abuse, including “sexual contact and inappropriate touching, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for inappropriate relationships and sexual comments,” the DOJ press release claimed.
Thus far, at least two such employees have been criminally charged. A male working at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas, allegedly touched the “private area” of three girls between ages 5 and 11. Another employee from a Southwest Key facility in Tucson, Arizona, allegedly brought an 11-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sex acts for several days.
Both employees also reportedly threatened to harm or even kill the children or their families if they reported the abuse. Perhaps equally as abhorrent, other staff members at the shelters allegedly knew about the abuse and failed to report it.
“Southwest Key took insufficient action to prevent sexual harassment of the children in its care, failed to consistently follow federal requirements for preventing, detecting and reporting abuse including sexual harassment, failed to take appropriate or sufficient action to protect the children in its care and discouraged children from disclosing sexual harassment in violation of federal requirements,” the press release stated.
Southwest Key receives funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As of May 31, nearly 7,800 children are in the care of HHS-funded facilities, though how many of those children are in Southwest Key shelters is unclear.
The AP reached out to Southwest Key for comment, as did Blaze News. We did not receive a response.
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