US sues migrant children shelter operator for abuse and harassment

• The court alleges that Southwest Key Programs Inc, which operates at least 29 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, violated the law by subjecting migrant children to detention | Photo: Texas Monthly

The U.S. Justice Department has sued the largest private provider of shelter and care for unaccompanied immigrant children for allowing patterns of sexual abuse and harassment once morest minors at its facilities along the southwest border.

The U.S. court alleges that Southwest Key Programs Inc, which currently operates at least 29 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, violated the law by subjecting migrant children in its care to “severe and widespread sexual harassment by employees,” it detailed in a statement on Thursday, July 18.

Details of the claim

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas alleges that from 2015 through at least 2023, several Southwest Key employees subjected children in their care to harassment, including inappropriate sexual contact and touching, sexual comments, requests for sexual acts, and requests for nude photographs.

Foto: Texas Monthly

The organization receives grants from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is responsible for caring for migrant minors who enter the United States alone.

The shelters, which are privately operated, serve as homes for children until they are reunited with their parents or placed with a relative or other sponsor vetted by ORR.

“The sexual harassment of children in shelters, where a child should be safe and protected, is abusive, dehumanizing and unlawful,” Kristen Clarke, a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the statement.

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Payments and a penalty are among the objectives of the lawsuit

The attorney general added that child sexual abuse is a crisis that cannot be ignored. “This lawsuit seeks relief for children who have been abused and harmed, and meaningful reforms to ensure that no child in these shelters is ever subjected to sexual abuse once more,” she said.

For his part, the Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States, Xavier Becerra, said that his department, of which the ORR is a part, has a zero tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse and harassment, or inappropriate sexual behavior, so it will be closely monitoring the assignment of migrant minors to care programs.

The lawsuit seeks damages to compensate children harmed by the alleged harassment, a civil penalty for the organization, and an injunction prohibiting future discrimination and requiring Southwest Key to take appropriate steps to prevent such harassment in the future.

In 2019, a former worker at a shelter for immigrant children operated by Southwest Key in Arizona was sentenced to 19 years in prison for sexually abusing seven teenagers held there.

With information from EFE

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