USA sues accommodation providers for sexual abuse of migrant children

JAUSTIN: The US Department of Justice alleges in a lawsuit filed this week that several employees at the largest shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in the US sexually abused and molested the children entrusted to their care.

The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Texas, alleges a “pattern” of “serious or widespread sexual harassment” dating back to at least 2015 in the network of shelters run by Austin, Texas-based nonprofit Southwest Key, which has been contracted by the federal government to care for migrants who enter the United States without parents or guardians.

The complaint includes alleged cases of “serious sexual abuse and rape, incitement to engage in sexual acts, incitement to provide nude photographs, incitement to engage in sexually inappropriate relationships, sexual comments and gestures.”

Southwest Key did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department said Southwest Key failed to protect the children in its care and did not consistently follow federal regulations to prevent, detect and report abuse.

In a 2022 case described in the complaint, a Southwest Key employee allegedly repeatedly sexually abused a 5-year-old, an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old girl at Casa Franklin in El Paso, Texas. The 8-year-old girl said the employee threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse, the complaint states.

In another 2020 case, an employee took a 15-year-old boy from Casa Kokopelli in Arizona to a hotel room for several days and paid him to perform sexual acts. In both cases, the abuse was documented in Southwest Key’s own reports, the lawsuit says.

“Sexually molesting children in residential settings, where a child should be safe and secure, is abusive, dehumanizing and unlawful,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement Thursday.

Southwest Key operates 29 shelters that provide temporary housing for unaccompanied children with grants from the Department of Health and Human Services in Texas, Arizona and California.

Migrant children who arrive at the border unaccompanied are housed by the U.S. government before being released to sponsors in the United States, typically parents or close relatives.

There have been record numbers of migrant crossings during the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat running for re-election against Republican former President Donald Trump, who has made criticism of Biden’s border policies a focus of his campaign. Since fiscal year 2021 through June of this year, more than 500,000 unaccompanied minors have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. government data.