Justice Department sues largest provider of housing for migrant children for engaging in sexual abuse and harassment of minors

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children in the country. The complaint alleges that workers at Southwest Key have been engaging in repeated sexual abuse and harassment of children in its care going back to at least 2015.

Details of the complaint

Southwest Key, based in Austin, Texas, operates 29 shelters for unaccompanied migrant children in Texas, Arizona and California. These shelters have a capacity to house approximately 6,350 children and are funded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

According to the lawsuit, there is a record of more than a hundred reports of sexual abuse and other forms of harassment by employees at these shelters since 2015. For example, an employee at a shelter in El Paso, Texas, is accused of sexually abusing three girls ages 5, 8 and 11. In another case, a worker at a shelter in Tucson, Arizona, is alleged to have taken an 11-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sex acts over several days in 2020. The complaint also alleges that the children were threatened with violence against themselves or their families if they reported anything about it.

HHS Response

Xavier Becerra, secretary of Health and Human Services, expressed concern about the allegations and reaffirmed HHS's commitment to a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior. Becerra stressed that steps will be taken to ensure the safety of minors in shelters.

The filing of this lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge granted the Justice Department's request to lift special judicial oversight over HHS's care of unaccompanied migrant children. The Administration of President Joe Biden had argued that newly implemented protective measures made the special oversight, that had been in place for 27 years, unnecessary.