Feds cut ties with Austin-based Southwest Key, move to drop lawsuit
The Southwest Key-Casa Padre Facility, formerly a Walmart Inc. store, stands in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., on Sunday, June 17, 2018. Photographer: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images
AUSTIN, Texas - The Trump administration moved to drop a lawsuit against the country's largest provider of shelter for unaccompanied migrant children, saying it would no longer be using the Austin-based company.
What we know:
The Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday said it would stop placing unaccompanied migrant children in shelters run by Southwest Key Programs and has moved all children to other shelters.
In the same announcement, the agency said the Department of Justice would drop a lawsuit claiming employees of those shelters sexually harassed and abused unaccompanied minors in those shelters.
The move comes a day after Southwest Key said it would furlough around 5,000 employees amid a freeze in federal funding and a stop placement order on their unaccompanied minor shelters, the Associated Press reported.
Southwest Key operates 29 migrant shelters – 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California.
Its largest shelter was in Brownsville, Texas, which had space to house 1,200 migrants.
What they're saying:
"This administration is working fearlessly to end the tragedy of human trafficking and other abuses of unaccompanied alien children who enter the country illegally," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said. "For too long, pernicious actors have exploited such children both before and after they enter the United States. Today’s action is a significant step toward ending this appalling abuse of innocents."
2024 civil lawsuit
The backstory:
The Department of Justice, in 2024, filed a civil lawsuit against Southwest Key alleging the company's employees subjected unaccompanied migrant children to unlawful sexual harassment and abuse.
Justice Department officials claimed authorities had received more than 100 reports of sexual abuse or harassment in the shelters since 2015.
Among the claims in the lawsuit: an employee "repeatedly sexually abused" three girls ages 5, 8 and 11 at a shelter in El Paso.
The lawsuit also alleged that another employee, at a shelter in Mesa, Arizona, took a 15-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sexual acts for several days in 2020.
Children were warned not to report the alleged abuse and threatened with violence against themselves or their families if they did, according to the lawsuit. Victims testified that in some instances, other workers knew about the abuse but failed to report or concealed it, the complaint said.
At least two employees have been indicted on criminal charges related to the allegations since 2020, the Associated Press reports.
What we don't know:
"Securing our border and protecting children from abuse are among the most critical missions of the Department of Justice and the Trump administration," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. "Under the border policies of the previous administration, bad actors were incentivized to exploit children and break our laws: this ends now."
It is unclear if other actions will be taken against Southwest Key or more employees of the company.
A release from HHS did not specify where those children currently in Southwest Key facilities would be placed.
The Source: Information on the Department of Health and Human Services decision to stop using Southwest Key and the Department of Justice's decision to drop their lawsuit against Southwest Key comes from a release from HHS. Background information on the lawsuit and Southwest Key's decision to furlough employees comes from the Associated Press.