WASHINGTON – The biggest housing provider for unaccompanied immigrant children has won billions of dollars in grants from the Biden administration — and used massive wind drops from executive administrations, according to tax returns and records.
Southwest's major programs reduced approximately $3 billion in federal taxpayer funds between 2021 and 2024. Data compiled by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to help evacuate and deploy immigrant children along with US sponsors when border crossings reach an all-time high under President Joe Biden.
Over the same period, the top Austin, Texas-based nonprofit organizations were raked together with much higher takeaway pay. All the latest tax returns.
At the same time, Southwest Key was hit in an investigation and federal lawsuit alleging that the immigrant child in its care was sexually abused by an employee or handed over to a trafficker.
Anselmo Villarreal, who became the group's president and CEO in February 2021, was paid $491,642 in that first fiscal year, but by fiscal year 2023 his compensation had skyrocketed to $1,174,551.
Other Southwest key executives, including Chief Human Resources' official Josea Arro Yodavira and its Chief Information Officer Andy Harper, have doubled their salaries to reach the $600,000 range.
The organization's chief FO, Eric Marine, won $349,232 in 2021, while his successor, Roberto Flores, took $583,139 two years later.
Another outstanding winner, Geraldribera, Senior VP of Immigration Services and later Chief Program Officer, surged from $312,791 to $555,998 a year before Biden resigned.
These executives and dozens of other Southwest Key employees recorded these six-figure surges in salaries in the first two years of the Biden administration, according to additional internal payment records obtained by the Post.
For example, Chief Christina Cantu of the Southwest Key Programme made only $86,300 in 2019. By fiscal 2022, Cantu's revenue was recorded at $326,228.
HHS Office of Inspector General Report In September 2020, we also discovered that Southwest Key improperly padded executive pockets with higher wages and bonuses.
On average, the top five executive salaries recorded in the format filed with the IRS were spiked between $420,000 and $720,000 between 2021 and 2023.
These pay hikes included a handful of Southwest key staffers (including its top lobbyist Vivian Panting) sending small donations to the democratic campaign fund.
The organization's other vice president, Veronica Delgado-Savage, has donated more than $700 to Biden's and subsequent Kamala Harris' 2024 campaign and Associated PAC, FEC Records shows. Her income during their management increased from $297,792 to $326,086.
That was the upward wages of Southwest Key under Biden. First reported by the Free Press In May 2024, before the group's 2023 application was made public.
Biden's HHS has driven out about half of the $6 billion taxpayers adopted by nonprofits since 2003, but cash infusions have not improved children's outcomes in their care.
The Justice Department sued Southwest's major program last July, and between 2015 and 2023, some supervisors and employees accused children of “severe” and “prevailing” rape and sexual abuse.
There was also a council investigation Evidence revealed The organization deployed immigrant children who entered the United States along with unblocked sponsors who allegedly trafficked or misused human trafficking;
“The Biden Harris administration not only created the worst border crisis in American history, but also empowered and tried to benefit from opportunistic nonprofits like Southwest's major programs,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) told the Post.
“This Congress, the Homeland Security Committee, continues to discover that the Biden administration has used taxpayer funds and has crossed borders,” the chairman added.
“We remain committed to ensuring that the federal government is a good steward of taxpayers' hard-earned money and pursues people who are wary of excessive profits at the expense of innocent Americans.”
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) I wrote a letter Last year, we informed Villarreal of the incredible whistleblower testimony submitted to his office that recorded “a ring that could earn a child” among his sponsors.
One whistleblower revealed that immigrant children have been closed to a home with members belonging to the “MS-13” gang.
Southwest Key only produced “lazy and obstructive” responses to record requests. Another letter Grassley opened fire Monday.
However, Trump's DOJ withdrew from a civil lawsuit against Southwest Key on Wednesday, and HHS announced in a statement Wednesday it would not provide funding to Texas nonprofits.
“Due to continued concerns related to these placements, the HHS has decided to stop the placement of unaccompanied foreign children at major facilities in the southwest and consider grants with the organization,” said the Public Health Agency coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security to handle the influx of immigrant children.
“In light of HHS's actions, the Department of Justice has dismissed the lawsuit against Southwest Key.”
A spokesman for the Southwest Key program said in a statement Wednesday that the group was “satisfied” with the firing of the incident and “strongly denied allegations regarding child sexual abuse at our shelter.”
“There is no need for settlement or payment,” the spokesman added before denounced the government's funding freeze imposed by Trump administrators with 5,000 layoffs.
A Grassley spokesperson told the Post Friday: Senator Grassley has contacted the DOJ for clarity on the dismissal of a major Southwest lawsuit and is looking forward to a follow-up conversation soon. ”
At least 32,000 immigrant children have gone missing in the United States after being released by immigration customs, according to an August 2024 report from DHS inspectors.
Another 291,000 people have been released to domestic sponsors, but not all have been properly vetted after DHS and HHS have reached an agreement that “no need to request “biographical and biometric (fingerprint) information” of all potential sponsors and adult members of households.
When the border crossing climbed in 2022, Biden's HHS secretary Xavier Beterra was also pressured staff to release immigrant children to sponsors as soon as possible, comparing the ideal turnover rate to “assembly lines,” reported The New York Times.
“This administration is working boldly to end the tragedy of human trafficking and other abuses of unaccompanied foreigners entering the country illegally,” HHS Director General Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday of the end of the Southwest major program grant.
“For too long, harmful actors have exploited such children before and after they entered the United States. Today's actions are an important step towards ending this innocent, innocent abuse.”
Representatives from the Southwest Key program did not respond to requests for comment.
