The Justice Department has alleged that staff at one of the federal government’s largest shelter operators committed hundreds of cases of sexual abuse against unaccompanied migrant children in its care.
On Thursday, the Justice Department Announced An investigation into Southwest Key Programs employees, including managers, has been ongoing since 2015 over allegations of sexual abuse, rape and exploitation of migrant children. At least two employees have already faced criminal charges related to the 2020 incidents, according to the Associated Press.
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The investigation stunned Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who blasted the Biden administration for not only fueling the migration crisis that trafficked these children into the U.S., but also funding people who sexually abuse those children.
“In other words, the administration that is fueling the border crisis has contracted with a housing provider implicated in the systematic sexual abuse of children,” Lee wrote. “No greater burden could exist.”
So the administration that is fueling the border crisis has contracted with a housing provider that is involved in the systematic sexual abuse of children.
There is no millstone this big. https://t.co/C8A7LkUEe1
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 19, 2024
Southwest Key Programs is one of several companies with federal contracts to house migrant children, and operates 29 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California with a reported capacity of more than 1,000 people. The shelters hold children from the time they cross into the US illegally until the federal government releases them to another person or agency. The nonprofit has been awarded more than $3 billion in federal contracts from the Department of Health and Human Services between 2015 and 2023.
According to the Department of Justice, staff at these shelters exploited children and threatened them if they spoke about the abuse.
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“In some cases, Southwest Key employees threatened the children to keep quiet,” the Justice Department’s complaint states. “In harassing the children, Southwest Key employees exploited the children’s vulnerability, language barriers, and distance from their families and loved ones.”
The Justice Department has identified more than 100 cases of sexual abuse, but believes there are many more. The lawsuits allege that victims included boys and girls as young as 8. In one case, an employee allegedly abused three girls, and in another, an employee lured an 11-year-old boy into a hotel room and forced him to engage in sexual acts over several days.
Officials said the children were threatened with physical violence and told that their families back home would be harmed if they did not comply with sexual demands or remained silent about the abuse.
The Biden administration has repeatedly been accused of supporting human trafficking for the sex industry.
In March, Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, held a press conference to point out that Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security is facilitating sex trafficking by issuing vouchers and ID cards to airlines to allow illegal immigrants to fly for free, and by offering to fly for free upon request.
Watch the video:
Sheriff Judd revealed that his department’s investigations found that New York City-based Venezuelan women told police they were being prostituted by fellow illegal immigrants and then flown for free to most major American cities for the sex trade. The exploited women also said they owed thousands of dollars to the traffickers who brought them to the United States, meaning they were essentially indentured sex slaves.
Governor Judd also announced in March that 21 suspected illegal immigrants had been arrested, out of 228 people arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking.
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