Illegal immigrant children raped, abused at DHS contracted 'youth care' centers: DOJ

The Department of Justice has said in a lawsuit that Southwest Key Programs has allowed the rape and abuse of illegal immigrant children at its "youth care" facilities as the children await sponsorship in the US. The "non-profit organization" has been contracted by the Biden administration's Department of Homeland Security. Southwest Key Programs is the largest housing service for unaccompanied children in the country.

According to a lawsuit that was launched this past week by the DOJ, Southwest Key Programs staff have repeatedly covered for each other as employees preyed on children at the different facilities. In fiscal year 2024 alone, the Biden administration has shelled out $1 billion to Southwest Key Programs, with the majority coming from DHS and some funding from the Department of Education.



The last large lump sum payment from the federal government was paid out in May 2024, with over $470 million going to the agency and they received a smaller $15 million in June.

The lawsuit details: "Defendant Southwest Key Programs, Inc. (“Southwest Key”) is a national nonprofit organization that provides housing and services to unaccompanied children who have entered the United States. From at least 2015 through at least 2023, multiple Southwest Key employees have subjected unaccompanied children in their care to repeated and unwelcome sexual abuse, harassment, and misconduct and a hostile housing 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 "non-profit organization" has been paid out over $4 billion since 2019, with payments being increased over the last several years under the Biden administration, possibly due to the influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border amid softer border security policies.

"In some cases, Southwest Key employees threatened children to maintain their silence. In harassing these children, these Southwest Key employees exploited the children’s vulnerabilities, language barriers, and distance from family and loved ones," the lawsuit adds. "The children who are entrusted to Southwest Key’s care are at the heart of this case. The aggrieved children range in age from as young as five years old to teenagers just shy of eighteen years old."

The lawsuit comes as more reporting has revealed that unaccompanied minors are often subject to terrible conditions after they are taken into the US. Under the Biden administration, a policy that hands off illegal immigrant children to "sponsors" in the US has also come under scrutiny as it has been revealed that many unaccompanied minors have been sent to homes linked to criminal activity and labor trafficking.

One example of the abuse from the recent lawsuit states: “A Southwest Key Youth Care Worker who in 2022 repeatedly sexually abused a five-year-old girl, an eight-year-old girl, and an eleven-year-old girl at Casa Franklin in El Paso, Texas. The eight-year-old girl disclosed that the Youth Care Worker repeatedly entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area,’ and he threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.”

Another example stated: "In March 2022, a twelve-year-old girl at Casa Franklin in El Paso, Texas, reported a teacher’s assistant placed his hand on her lower back and buttocks. The child reported she believed the teacher’s assistant did this intentionally, that he always requested that she stand in the back of line-ups when walking in the shelter and that he only removed his hand because another teacher was approaching."