NGO responds to allegations it subjected children to ‘repeated’ sexual abuse



A recent Department of Justice lawsuit accused a prominent nongovernmental organization of subjecting unaccompanied children to “repeated” sexual abuse and harassment. The nonprofit responded to the allegations, claiming that the DOJ's complaint "does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children."

Southwest Key Programs, a Texas-based nonprofit, partners with the Department of Health and Human Services to provide housing to minors who unlawfully cross into the United States without a parent or guardian. According to its website, the organization is “an integral partner in the U.S. response to the immigration crisis at our southern border.”

'The child’s accounts were partially corroborated by video footage.'

The DOJ’s lawsuit claimed, “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 suit alleged that some of the children were “threatened” by the employees to “maintain their silence” about the abuse. The organization was accused of “fail[ing] to take appropriate action to protect the children in its care.”

According to the DOJ, the children impacted by the alleged abuse were as young as 5 years old.

After unaccompanied minors are apprehended by Border Patrol at the southern border, they are placed with the HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for providing humanitarian care and housing. The agency partners with several NGOs to provide these services, including Southwest Key.

As part of its partnership with the federal government, the HHS provides NGOs with grants funded by American taxpayers.

The DOJ’s complaint noted that Southwest Key is “the largest private care provider of housing for unaccompanied children in the United States.” The NGO operated 29 shelters, accommodating roughly 6,350 children.

“Between fiscal years 2015 and 2023, Southwest Key received over three billion dollars in funding from HHS,” it added.

During that period of time, the organization received complaints of sexual abuse and harassment “at the majority” of its facilities, the DOJ claimed.

In one instance in 2022, an 8-year-old girl reported that a Southwest Key youth care worker “repeatedly” entered her bedroom at night to abuse her. The worker was also accused of inappropriately touching a 5-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl. He allegedly “threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.”

In 2019, a teenage girl passed a note to her teacher stating that a shift leader had “repeatedly raped, abused, and threatened” her.

“She reported she believed that Southwest Key employees were covering to protect the Shift Leader because, among other things, he would regularly switch assignments with other staff so that he could be alone with her,” the DOJ’s lawsuit read. “The child’s accounts were partially corroborated by video footage of the Shift Leader entering her bedroom and her journal documenting abuse. In addition, employees observed the Shift Leader’s failure to follow bedroom check policy and routinely entering the child’s bedroom (as well as entering other children’s bedrooms) for periods of time without other employees present.”

The DOJ’s complaint listed numerous other incidents of sexual abuse and harassment allegedly committed by the NGO’s employees. It is unclear how many children were allegedly subjected to the abuse.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra stated, “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination.”

“The U.S. Department of Justice’s complaint against Southwest Key raises serious pattern or practice concerns. HHS will continue to work with the Justice Department and oversight agencies to hold its care-giving programs like Southwest Key accountable. And we will continue to closely evaluate our assignment of children into care-giving programs to ensure the safety and well-being of every child in HHS custody,” Becerra added.

The HHS’ Administration for Children and Families declined the Daily Caller New Foundation’s request for comment, deferring to the DOJ, which also declined to comment.

Blaze News reported on the allegations against Southwest Key last week, but at that time, the NGO had not publicly commented on the lawsuit. A spokesperson for Southwest Key has since told the DCNF that it still partners with the HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.

“Southwest Key Programs’ primary focus is the safety, health, and well-being of each one of the children and youth we care for,” the spokesperson told the DCNF. “We continue to review the complaint, and it does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children.”

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Biden admin is ‘complicit’ in trafficking of unaccompanied minors: Gov’t whistleblowers



Federal government whistleblowers told senators on Tuesday that the Biden administration's Office of Refugee Resettlement, within the Department of Health and Human Services, likely placed unaccompanied minors with child traffickers, neglecting to properly vet sponsors.

Deborah White and Tara Rodas, federal employees, stated that they first discovered that the ORR was placing children in "dangerous" situations in June 2021.

'The most horrific injustice.'

After minors cross the border, Customs and Border Protection places unaccompanied children in the custody of HHS' ORR. It is the department's responsibility to find and vet sponsors to look after the minors. Its order of preference is first to try to turn the children over to parents or a legal guardian; however, according to Tuesday's testimony to the panel of senators, this rarely occurs.

"What I discovered was horrifying: children were being trafficked with billions of taxpayer dollars by a contractor failing to vet sponsors and process children safely, with government officials complicit in it," White stated. "Children were sent to addresses that were abandoned houses or nonexistent in some cases."

"In Michigan, a child was sent to an open field, even after we reported making an [sic] 911 call after hearing someone screaming for help, yet the child was still sent," White continued. "When I raised concerns about contractor failures and asked to see the contract I was told, 'You're not gonna get the contract and don't ask for it again.' So I took it upon myself to create trainings for significant incident reports of sexual abuse and for flagging trafficking, in order to equip case managers."

According to White, despite reporting her concerns, the children continued to be sent to "dangerous places."

"When we questioned documents, HHS ORR leadership said, 'You're not fake ID experts, and your job is not to investigate the sponsor. Your job is to reunify the child with the sponsor,'" White said.

Rodas told senators that the ORR did not meet with sponsors in person and noted that children were being placed with "random people."

She explained that a 16-year-old girl from Guatemala was placed with a man who claimed to be the child's brother, but it was "clear" that he was not. The female "looked drugged" and like "she was for sale" in pictures posted to the male's social media. She added that the male was "touching her inappropriately" and possessed other accounts on social media that contained child pornography.

Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris claimed that only 10% of unaccompanied minors are placed with their parents.

"It defies logic and is inhumane," Harris remarked.

Both White and Rodas claimed that the ORR and Cherokee Federal, a taxpayer-funded contractor tasked with resettling the unaccompanied children, ignored warning signs of potential trafficking operations.

White stated that Cherokee Federal staffed "several unqualified unvetted and quite frankly dangerous contractors with access to vulnerable children that did not get the appropriate support, services, or humanity they deserved after a most treacherous journey."

She added that the stories she has heard from some of the children "will haunt me for the rest of my life."

"HHS ORR leadership and the contractor allowed children to be trafficked on their watch and the taxpayers continue to fund it," White said, calling the department's program "the biggest failure in government history."

"This is the most horrific injustice against children that I have witnessed in my entire federal career," Rodas declared.

Neither HHS nor Cherokee Federal responded to a request for comment from the Post.

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HHS doesn't request background checks for juvenile illegal immigrants, says Biden admin official: Report



The Biden administration's Department of Health and Human Services does not request the criminal records of illegal immigrants under 18 years old, according to testimony provided by a senior HHS official, the New York Post recently reported.

Last June, Robin Dunn Marcos, an HHS official, told the House Judiciary Committee that the department does not request complete background check information for unaccompanied alien children. She testified that the HHS does contact the juvenile's home consulate or embassy to request some information.

'These policies have incentivized criminals.'

Marcos is the deputy assistant secretary for humanitarian services and the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Administration for Children and Families at HHS.

A House Judiciary Committee member told Marcos, "Earlier you mentioned that [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] contacts the UAC consulate and the UAC's home country to verify date of birth, birth certificate of the UAC, and whether the UAC is suspected of being an adult in those types of contexts."

"What else does ORR verify with consulates? What other type of information?" the committee member asked.

In testimony obtained by the Post, Marcos responded, "I believe that it is birth certificates and identity documents."

When asked whether HHS requests "the criminal record in the home country from the consulate," Marcos responded, "We do not."

Unaccompanied children, which includes those under the age of 18, are transferred to the ORR's custody. The department is responsible for providing the minor with food, shelter, and medical care. The ORR is also tasked with finding a sponsor to care for the child while they are in the U.S.

The department has been repeatedly criticized for its handling of the illegal immigration crisis, particularly regarding how it selects sponsors for minors. The HHS has been accused of having a "culture of speed over safety."

HHS whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas claimed that the department "lost immediate contact" with 85,000 unaccompanied alien children after placing them with sponsors. She stated that some of the so-called vetted sponsors are "criminals and traffickers and members of Transnational Criminal Organizations."

As of fiscal year 2023, of the lost children, 70% were age 15 or older, the Post reported. Most of the juveniles were boys, it noted.

The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement issued a report on Monday that accused HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra of creating a "toxic situation" that endangers Americans and UACs.

"As the Committee and Subcommittee's oversight has shown, these policies have incentivized criminals, such as the MS-13-affiliated illegal alien who murdered Kayla Hamilton, to come to the southwest border, knowing they very likely will be released into the interior of the country. Tragically, the Biden Administration has failed to engage in necessary diligence in the case of the UAC that murdered Kayla Hamilton, instead doubling down on the very policies that enabled her murderer to roam free," the report read.

Hamilton, 20, was raped and killed by a 17-year-old MS-13 gang member who was allowed into the U.S. by DHS and placed in the custody of a sponsor. The suspect was previously arrested in his home country of El Salvador for his association with the gang. This information was only verified after Hamilton's murder, the committee's report noted.

When unlawfully crossing the border, some adult illegal aliens pose as children.

Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center, previously told Blaze News, "You'd be amazed how many are '17' when apprehended. With no verified ID, and with DHS having deliberately abandoned DNA testing and not doing bone-density or other methods, there is no way to be sure. This is a great way for transnational criminal organizations (gangs) like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 to bring in members."

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HHS Spent $13 Billion Sponsoring And Losing Migrant Kids

HHS lost contact with 85,000 minors over two years despite spending $13 billion to sponsor their stays in the country.

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