A new lawsuit by the Department of Justice alleges that “multiple employees” of the largest housing provider for unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. southern border illegally committed various forms of sexual abuse against children in their care while the nonprofit’s leadership condoned it.
The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it filed a lawsuit against Southwest Key Programs, alleging that the nonprofit violated the Fair Housing Act by encouraging or ignoring abuse.
Both staff members also reportedly threatened to harm or kill the children and their families if they reported the abuse. Perhaps just as abhorrent is that other staff at the shelter knew about the abuse but failed to report it.
Southwest Key is a total 29 evacuation shelters For unaccompanied migrant minors, Southwest Key has 17 facilities in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California that can house a total of 6,350 children.
Since at least 2015, some of the nonprofit’s employees engaged in egregious sexually abusive behavior, including “sexual contact or inappropriate touching, solicitations for sex, solicitations of nude photographs, solicitations for inappropriate relationships and sexual comments,” the Justice Department said. press release He claimed.
At least two employees have been criminally charged so far: A man working at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas, allegedly groped the “private areas” of three girls ages 5 to 11. Another employee at the Southwest Key facility in Tucson, Arizona, allegedly lured an 11-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to engage in sex acts over several days.
Both staff members also reportedly threatened to harm or kill the children and their families if they reported the abuse. Perhaps just as abhorrent is that other staff at the shelter knew about the abuse but failed to report it.
“Southwest Key took inadequate steps to prevent sexual harassment of children in its care, failed to consistently follow federal requirements regarding the prevention, detection and reporting of abuse, including sexual harassment, failed to take appropriate or sufficient steps to protect children in its care, and discouraged children from disclosing sexual harassment in violation of federal requirements,” the press release said.
Southwest Key receives funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As of May 31, approximately 7,800 children were in HHS-funded facilities, but it was unclear how many of those children were in Southwest Key’s care.
The Associated Press reached out to Southwest Key for comment, as did The Blaze-News, but did not receive a response.
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