Unaccompanied migrant children were raped by federal contractors, Justice Department says

Migrant children detained in the United States after illegally crossing the border are subjected to “widespread” sexual abuse by federal contractors, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

The department filed suit against Southwest Key Programs, which operates homes for illegal immigrant minors awaiting placement with “sponsors” in the United States. Under federal law, minors who cross the border illegally cannot be returned to their home country. Southwest Key houses more than 6,000 children in 29 homes supervised by “youth workers.”

The lawsuit alleges that Southwest Key’s records show that employees repeatedly covered for one another in the exploitation of children.

“A Southwest Key youth worker repeatedly sexually abused a five-year-old, an eight-year-old and an 11-year-old girl at Casa Franklin in El Paso, Texas in 2022,” the lawsuit states. “The eight-year-old girl stated that the youth worker repeatedly entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private areas’ and he threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.”

Southwest Key has received $4 billion from the federal government since 2019. Payments have increased as illegal border crossings have increased, rising from $391 million in 2020 to nearly $1 billion so far in fiscal year 2024, according to federal data.

The lawsuit comes amid revelations that unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S. often face unsafe conditions. Federal officials told Congress this month that migrant children were first handed over to contractors with inadequate training and then sent to unvetted sponsors. Deborah White, an HHS whistleblower, recalled the “horrifying” realization that “children were being trafficked for billions of taxpayer dollars, by a contractor who did not vet sponsors and did not treat the children safely, and in which government officials were complicit.”

White described the trial as “taxpayer-funded slavery and child trafficking.”

The lawsuit describes “over one hundred reports of unlawful sexual abuse or molestation of children in Southwest Key’s care since at least 2015.”

“These cases are examples of Southwest Key’s long-standing pattern or practice of illegal sexual abuse, harassment and misconduct toward children in Southwest Key’s care. Southwest Key has failed to consistently correct its practices and allowed the harassment to continue without adequate intervention,” the lawsuit states.

In one case, a teenager at Casa Kokopelli in Mesa, Arizona, told a “doctor” that she missed her mother, and “the doctor steered the conversation toward sex” and said in a conversation with another teenager that he “could be more than your doctor if you would allow me,” the lawsuit says.

“Another 2019 Southwest Key Report details how a child at Casa Rio Grande in San Benito, Texas, reported that a male youth worker told him he liked dating ‘transsexuals, transgender people, personas gay,’ which translates to ‘transsexuals, transgender people, gay people.'”

“The youth worker asked the child if he was dressed as a woman and going to work at night; while asking this question, the youth worker stroked his own groin. After the child complained, Southwest Key placed him in a home in another state. Southwest Key eventually rehired the youth worker,” the lawsuit states.

In 2022, two staff members at Casa Norma Linda in Los Fresnos, Texas, helped a third person conduct and conceal a relationship with a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor. In 2023, at Casa Las Palmas in Mesa, Arizona, a minor reported that a staff member allegedly told the youth worker he wanted to “do it hard” and asked, “How are women in Venezuela?”

That same year, a boy testified that a shift supervisor “touched the child while he was showering and verbally harassed him, ‘constantly’ telling him she wanted him to stay at the home and ‘have children with her,'” the lawsuit states. Although Southwest Key’s internal investigation found the employee had engaged in misconduct, “she continued her employment at Southwest Key.”

There was also a shift supervisor who allegedly “repeatedly raped, abused and threatened a young girl during her stay at the Casa Montezuma home in Channelview, Texas” in 2019. The girl said other staff members covered for him by switching shifts with him so he could target her.

The Justice Department alleges that Southwest Key employees took advantage of the children’s illegal status and lack of parents to silence them through threats. “A Southwest Key employee at Casa Franklin in El Paso, Texas, threatened an eight-year-old girl that he would ‘kill her family’ if she reported his abuse to anyone.”

“A Southwest Key manager at Casa Montezuma in Channelview, Texas, threatened the girl he was molesting that she would be hospitalized if she reported the sexual abuse. A Southwest Key employee at Casa Nueva Esperanza in Brownsville, Texas, discouraged a child from reporting the molestation, telling her that doing so would delay her reunification with her family or negatively impact her placement with a sponsor,” it said.

When a child reported sexual abuse by staff and discovered hickeys, the staff member she reported to told her to “cover up” the hickeys and did not report it to anyone. The child reported it to a second staff member, who notified a supervisor, who allegedly ordered that staff member not to write a report. That staff member attempted to report the incident directly to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which handles unaccompanied minors.

Southwest Key, which received billions from ORR, claimed it did not have a phone number for the office.

Anais Biera Miracle, the contractor’s communications officer, told The Daily Wire in a statement that the lawsuit “does not paint an accurate picture of the care and commitment of our employees to the youth and children.”

“We are in constant contact and continue to work closely with the Office of Refugee Resettlement,” Miracle said.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit seeks monetary damages “for any person harmed by Southwest Key’s discriminatory conduct” as well as “civil penalties against Southwest Key to protect the public interest.”

The Biden administration has relaxed vetting of unaccompanied migrant “sponsors,” eliminating DNA testing and, in many cases, FBI background checks. In some cases, the Department of Health and Human Services knowingly sent children to gang members. A third of unaccompanied migrants – about 85,000 children – are currently missing.

White, the HHS whistleblower, says she faced resistance when she tried to check on a migrant child.

“When I inquired about the welfare of a child at another facility, I was told, ‘Don’t do that again. Once these children are here … they’re gone and you’re no longer responsible for them.'”

Related: Whistleblowers describe how 85,000 ‘unaccompanied minors’ disappeared after Biden administration dropped them off with ‘sponsors’