(ConservativeInsider.org) – The US Department of Justice has sued America’s largest housing facility for unaccompanied migrant children, Southwest Key, for abusing children after taking billions of dollars of funding from the federal government.
The Texas-based Southwest Key Programs, which claims to help children “achieve their dreams,” and operates 29 shelters across the border states, allegedly exploited migrant minors and subjected them to severe sexual abuses under the watch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
From 2015 to 2023, the HHS poured in more than $3 billion of taxpayers’ money to the non-profit group, which has the capacity to house more than 6,000 migrant children.
The lawsuit accused the organization of pushing children into an ultra-toxic environment where they were forced into multiple abusive situations, including heinous abuse, photographs depicting said abuse, and solicitation.
These migrant children, who were unable to speak English and with no relatives or trusted adults around, were also pressured by Southwest Key employees not to speak about their exploitation.
The lawsuit mentioned an instance from 2022 when a Southwest employee in the non-profit’s El Paso facility “repeatedly” abused three different girls from 5 to 11 years of age. According to the lawsuit, the employee used to enter the bedroom of an 8-year-old girl at midnight to touch her inappropriately while threatening to kill her family members if she spoke about the abuse.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), operated under the HHS subagency, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), works in close collaboration with Southwest Key.
Southwest Key’s spokesperson stated that they have been working with the ORR for the last two decades, and they will continue to ensure that children present in their facility are protected.
Meanwhile, the HHS Secretary, Xavier Becerra, stated that his department has no tolerance for abusive behavior and acknowledged that the lawsuit has raised some serious questions about the operations of the Southwest Key.
Copyright 2024, ConservativeInsider.org
