Current:Home > MyHousing provider for unaccompanied migrant children engaged in sexual abuse and harassment, DOJ says -GrowthSphere Strategies
Housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children engaged in sexual abuse and harassment, DOJ says
View
Date:2025-04-18 13:54:02
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children has engaged in the “severe, pervasive” sexual abuse and harassment of children in its care, the Justice Department alleges.
Southwest Key employees, including supervisors, have raped, touched or solicited sex and nude images of children in its care since at least 2015, the DOJ alleged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday. At least two employees have been charged since 2020, according to the lawsuit.
Based in Austin, Southwest Key is the largest provider of housing to unaccompanied migrant children, operating under grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It has 29 child migrant shelters: 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California.
Children living there range in ages from 5 to 17. Among the allegations is the repeated abuse of a 5-year-old in the care of a Southwest Key shelter in El Paso. In 2020, a youth care worker at the provider’s Tucson, Arizona, shelter took an 11-year old boy to a hotel for several days and paid the minor to perform sexual acts on the employee, the Justice Department alleges.
Children were threatened with violence against themselves or family if they reported the abuse, according to the lawsuit. It added that testimony from the victims revealed staff in some instances knew about the ongoing abuse and failed to report it or concealed it.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the complaint “raises serious pattern or practice concerns” about Southwest Key. “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination,” he said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to lift special court oversight of Health and Human Services’ care of unaccompanied migrant children. President Joe Biden’s administration argued that new safeguards rendered special oversight unnecessary 27 years after it began.
The Associated Press left a message with the company seeking comment Thursday.
veryGood! (9851)
Related
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Polish police briefly detain lawmaker who interrupted prime minister’s speech
- Kraft Heinz is recalling some American cheese slices because the wrappers could pose choking hazard
- Which NFL teams can survive 0-2 start to 2023 season? Ranking all nine by playoff viability
- Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
- California may limit how much company behind Arrowhead bottled water can draw from mountain springs
- An artist took $84,000 in cash from a museum and handed in blank canvases titled Take the Money and Run. He's been ordered to return some of it
- Putin accepts invitation to visit China in October after meeting Chinese foreign minister in Moscow
- Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
- Colombian leader summons intense oratory for a bleak warning: that humanity is making itself extinct
Ranking
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- Injured hiker rescued in Grand Canyon was left behind by friends, rescuers say
- Japan records a trade deficit in August as exports to China, rest of Asia weaken
- Biden is unveiling the American Climate Corps, a program with echoes of the New Deal
- Can Bill Belichick turn North Carolina into a winner? At 72, he's chasing one last high
- A look at Canada’s relationship with India, by the numbers
- New features in iOS 17 that can help keep you safe: What to know
- Sacramento prosecutor sues California’s capital city over failure to clean up homeless encampments
Recommendation
Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky share first photos of their newborn baby, Riot Rose
Vanna White Officially Extends Wheel of Fortune Contract
Mental health among Afghan women deteriorating across the country, UN report finds
In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
Lazio goalkeeper scores late to earn draw. Barca, Man City and PSG start Champions League with wins
Hunter Biden to plead not guilty to firearms charges
The alchemy of Carlos Santana