Migrant children were put in abusive shelters for years, suit says. Critics blame lack of oversight

MCALLEN, Texas — As allegations of sexual abuse built up at the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S., officials continued placing children in their care in a system that lacks adequate oversight, advocates say.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Justice Department alleges employees of Southwest Key Programs Inc. sexually abused and harassed children in their care for at least eight years. During that time, the nonprofit organization amassed billions of dollars in government contracts and continued to house thousands of unaccompanied migrant children entering the U.S.

It remained unclear Friday how many children are currently in Southwest Key shelters, and federal officials did not respond to questions about whether any actions would be taken in response to the lawsuit. Critics say it reflects a system that has lacked accountability for years.

''The whole point of this complaint is that there's this pattern and practice,'' said Leecia Welch, deputy legal director at Children's Rights. ''If they're bringing this complaint that they saw a pattern and practice of sexual harassment and violating these kids while still placing kids at Southwest Key during the same time period, that's why I have such a disconnect.''

Southwest Key, which operates under grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, has 29 child migrant shelters — 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California — with room for more than 6,300 children.

The department did not respond to emailed requests for comment asking whether children will continue to be placed there. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment beyond the lawsuit announcement Thursday. Southwest Key did not respond to an additional emailed request for comment Friday.

''ORR continued to contract with Southwest Key despite knowing of some of these issues, so right now there isn't in another place to put all these kids,'' said Diane de Gramont, an attorney with the National Center for Youth Law. ''And we would be extremely concerned if kids then ended up in border patrol facilities for longer periods of time because ORR didn't have enough beds for them.''

The Border Patrol must transfer custody of unaccompanied children within 72 hours of arrest to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which releases most to parents or close relatives after short stays at Southwest Key or shelters operated by other contracted providers.

The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, a nonprofit organization that advocates for immigrant children, called for children in custody to be immediately reunited with family members and have access to attorneys as well as ''independent courts who will hear their claims of harm.''

Previous abuse at some Southwest Key shelters led to their closure, including two large facilities in Arizona in 2018. The state revoked their licenses for not properly conducting background checks on their employees, and further investigation revealed several cases of physical and sexual abuse, including accusations from the government of El Salvador.

The abuse reflects the important role of state oversight, something that is now lacking in states like Texas and Florida, where Republican governors revoked state licensing of facilities that house migrant children.

Critics say there exists no equivalent system to report and investigate child abuse and neglect through the Health and Human Services Department's Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the housing of migrant children.

''If there is an incident of abuse, when the state is there, there's a clear hotline for anybody to call,'' de Gramont said. ''There's a mandatory investigation ... there's a strict series of events that's supposed to happen there.''

Some experts also wondered why the complaint was filed as a civil lawsuit where no one would be held criminally liable.

Daniel Hatoum, a Texas Civil Rights Project attorney whose experience includes defending children subject to the work of immigration contractors, said a criminal lawsuit could come later.

''Corporate liability can be a lot harder for the Department of Justice than civil liability and especially individual criminal liability,'' he said. The civil lawsuit is seeking a jury trial and requesting monetary damages for the victims of the alleged abuse.

The Justice Department's lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge granted its request to lift special court oversight of the Health and Human Services Department's care of unaccompanied migrant children, known as the Flores agreement. This gave attorneys representing child migrants broad authority to visit custody facilities and conduct interviews with staff and other migrants, as well as register complaints with the court.

President Joe Biden's administration argued that new federal safeguards rendered special oversight unnecessary 27 years after it began. In one court document, Health and Human Services Department official Toby Biswas painted a rosy picture of the new regulations' numerous protections for unaccompanied children as well as independent accountability for their custody conditions.

Advocates instead saw a void in oversight.

Carrie Van der Hoek, deputy program director for the Young Center's Child Advocate Program in Texas, said in an affidavit opposing the termination of the Flores agreement that her staff reported approximately 10 instances of alleged abuse and neglect to the state's Department of Family and Protective Services since Texas revoked its licensing in 2021.

''When we have made these reports, in some cases, DFPS officials told us that they would not investigate the complaint because DFPS did not have jurisdiction over ORR facilities,'' Van der Hoek said. ''In other cases, we received no response and were not aware of any actions taken by DFPS or any other state agency to investigate the report.''

Van der Hoek also said that if a child called preprogrammed telephones in the Office of Refugee Resettlement, facilities that allow them to reach the state child abuse and neglect hotline, they would get the same response.

Biswas said they began conducting ''in-depth reviews'' of abuse allegations at Texas facilities beginning March 2022 and will begin its own investigations of alleged child abuse and neglect in Texas ''or in any other state if it ceases to perform such investigations'' as of July of this year.

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Associated Press journalist Elliot Spagat contributed to this report.

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A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the Justice Department filed the lawsuit on Thursday.