DOJ sues Southwest Key for ‘severe sexual abuse and rape’ of sheltered children

BROWNSVILLE, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Southwest Key Programs Inc., alleging that the Texas non-profit organization has engaged in a pattern of sexual abuse of children in its shelters.

Southwest Key is a national non-profit organization with at least 29 shelters for unaccompanied migrant children across several states, including Texas, Arizona and California.

The organization has four shelters in Brownsville, two in San Benito and one shelter in Weslaco, McAllen and Los Fresnos.

The Justice Department filed a complaint against the company, stating that from 2015 to 2023, multiple employees have subjected the children in their care to “repeated and unwelcome sexual abuse.”

The complaint continues stating that employees created a hostile environment, including “severe sexual abuse and rape, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for sexually inappropriate relationships, sexual comments and gestures, leering and inappropriate touching.”

The document stated that the children ranged in age from as young as 5 years old to teenagers.

According to the DOJ, Southwest Key took insufficient action to prevent this sexual harassment, failed to follow federal requirements for reporting abuse and discouraged children from disclosing sexual harassment.

The complaint references an incident in 2022, where a Southwest Key Youth Care Worker “repeatedly sexually abused” a 5-year-old girl, an 8-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl at Casa Franklin in El Paso.

The document references a separate incident in May 2022, where a Youth Care Worker at Casa Oasis in McAllen “sexually touched boys” during transport.

The complaint continues, detailing additional accounts of sexual abuse in locations in Brownsville, San Benito, Los Fresnos, Channelview and Arizona.

The Justice Department also outlines several occurrences of the victim’s being threatened or discouraged from reporting the abuse, including one incident in El Paso where an employee told an 8-year-old girl he would kill her family if she reported the abuse to anyone.

“In search of the American Dream, children often endure perilous journeys on their migration north to the southern border. The sexual harassment alleged in the complaint would destroy any child’s sense of safety turning what was an American Dream into a nightmare,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani of the SDTX. “We look forward to working together with the Civil Rights Division (CRD) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas (WDTX) to provide justice for the victims who allegedly suffered harm in Southwest Key’s shelters.”

The program receives grants from the DHHS Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide housing for the children at the shelter.

The lawsuit seeks monetary relief to compensate for the children that were harmed and a civil penalty to “vindicate the public interest.”

Those with information regarding other instances of sexual harassment or sexual abuse at Southwest Key shelters are asked to contact the tip line at 1-833-591-0291, or through email at southwest.key@usdoj.gov.

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