Largest housing provider for migrant children
engaged in pervasive sexual abuse, US says
Posted July 18, 2024 2:51 pm.
Last Updated July 19, 2024 7:42 pm.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Employees of the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S. repeatedly sexually abused and harassed children in their care for at least eight years, the Justice Department said Thursday, alleging a shocking litany of offenses that took place as the company amassed billions of dollars in government contracts.
Southwest Key Programs Inc. employees, including supervisors, raped, touched or solicited sex and nude images of children beginning in 2015 and possibly earlier, the Justice Department said in a lawsuit filed this week. At least two employees have been indicted on criminal charges related to the allegations since 2020.
It was not immediately clear how many children are currently in Southwest Key’s vast network of shelters across three states, which have room for more than 6,300 children. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment beyond the lawsuit announcement when asked whether the department recommended that children be removed from the shelters or that the the nonprofit’s contracts be terminated.
“In some cases, Southwest Key employees threatened children to maintain their silence,” the lawsuit states. “In harassing these children, these Southwest Key employees exploited the children’s vulnerabilities, language barriers, and distance from family and loved ones.”
In a statement, Southwest Key said it was reviewing the complaint and disputed the portrayal of its care for children.
The nonprofit organization is the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children, operating under grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It has 29 child migrant shelters — 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California. The company’s largest shelter in Brownsville, Texas, is at a converted Walmart with a capacity for 1,200.
The provider has been a major but somewhat low-profile player in the government’s response to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrant children traveling alone in recent years and during the separation of thousands of families in 2017 and 2018 under President Donald Trump’s administration. The government awarded the provider more than $3 billion in contracts from 2015 to 2023.
The Border Patrol must transfer custody of unaccompanied children within 72 hours of arrest to 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.
Health and Human Services reported 6,228 children at all of its facilities on June 17, according to the most recent data on its website, which does not break numbers down by shelter or provider. The department declined to say how many children are currently in Southwest Key’s care or if the agency continues to assign children to its facilities.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Austin, where Southwest Key is based, provides extensive details, saying authorities received more than 100 reports of sexual abuse or harassment at the provider’s shelters since 2015.
Among the lawsuit’s allegations: An employee “repeatedly sexually abused” three girls ages 5, 8 and 11 at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas. The 8-year-old told investigators that the 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.”
The lawsuit also alleges that an employee of the provider’s shelter in Mesa, Arizona, took a 15-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sexual acts for several days in 2020.
Children were threatened with violence against themselves or family if they reported abuse, according to the lawsuit. It added that testimony from the victims revealed staff in some instances knew about the ongoing abuse and failed to report it or concealed it.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the complaint “raises serious pattern or practice concerns” about Southwest Key. “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination,” he said in a statement.
Southwest spokesperson Anais Biera Miracle said Thursday that the provider is still reviewing the complaint, which she said “does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children.”
Texas, like Florida, revoked the licenses of facilities that house migrant children in 2021 in response to an extraordinary influx of people across its border from Mexico, creating what some critics said was an oversight void.
The lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to lift special court oversight of HHS’ care of unaccompanied migrant children. President Joe Biden’s administration argued that new federal safeguards rendered special oversight unnecessary 27 years after it began.
Special court oversight remains in place at the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Border Patrol.
Leecia Welch, an attorney for unaccompanied children in the case for court oversight, said the allegations against Southwest Key are “absolutely disgusting” and blamed Texas’ revocation of licenses for “a powder keg waiting to explode.”
“While I applaud the efforts to right the grievous wrongs these children have experienced, I hope the federal government will also take some responsibility for the role it played,” said Welch, deputy legal director of Children’s Rights.
Neha Desai, another attorney involved in court oversight, called the allegations “profoundly disturbing and shocking.”
“I hope that the government takes the most aggressive measures possible to ensure that children currently placed at Southwest Key facilities are not in harm’s way,” said Desai, senior director for immigration at the National Center for Youth Law.
The Associated Press left email messages Thursday with the offices of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The attorneys general of Arizona and California declined to comment on the litigation.
Southwest grew as unaccompanied children began crossing the border in large numbers in 2014, overwhelming U.S. authorities.
The company has found itself in the middle of controversies over immigration and has steadfastly maintained that its mission was to provide quality care for children. It names its facilities “casas,” Spanish for home.
“A typical day for children in a Southwest Key Casa includes breakfast, school, lunch, dinner, homework, snacks, and bedtime,” the Justice Department said in its complaint.
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Former Utah sheriff’s deputy arrested
in child sex abuse case
Jul 21, 2024, 4:30 PM
MONTICELLO, San Juan County — A former San Juan County sheriff’s deputy has been arrested on suspicion of child sex abuse.
Authorities booked Grayson Redd, 74, into jail Sunday after an “ongoing investigation into recently disclosed criminal behavior going back at least two decades,” the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Those allegations include rape of a child and forcible sex abuse of children and minors, the sheriff’s office said.
Redd is a former San Juan County Sheriff’s deputy. He retired in 2011, according to an article from the San Juan Record.
The sheriff’s office did not share specific details about the allegations against Redd. A probable cause affidavit was not yet publicly available on the Utah court system as of Sunday afternoon.
Officials said there may be more victims out there. They encouraged anyone who Redd victimized to contact the San Juan County Attorney’s victim advocate or the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office.
Boston Children's Hospital anesthesiologist
accused of possessing, distributing
child sex abuse material
BOSTON - A pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist at Boston's Children's Hospital has been arrested on charges of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, federal prosecutors said.
The charges follow a search of his home and phone. He is alleged to have knowingly distributed and possessed videos between July 1 and July 18.
Boston Children's Hospital said in statement that it had terminated Sheerer's employment following his arrest.01"When Boston Children's Hospital learned today of new fellow Dr. Christopher Sheerer's arrest, we immediately terminated their employment. Our patients' and their families' safety and well-being remain our utmost priority," the hospital said in the statement.
The anesthesiologist had started a fellowship at the hospital on July 1 and had previously worked at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, according to a police affidavit filed in court.
A federal investigation began in Baltimore in May into a member of a group on an encrypted messaging app that required users to upload nude imagery of children. The anesthesiologist was identified as that user, the affidavit said. Sheerer allegedly uploaded imagery of a child known to him to gain admission to that group.
I have been warning my readers for many years about hiring men or boys to babysit your children. You are putting them at an unnecessary risk as neither men nor boys should be trusted with little children. Men have absolutely no business looking after someone else's children. Far too often there is an alterior motive.
Dutch babysitter gets 3 years in prison
for child sex abuse
Julian F. (25) from the municipality of Schagen was sentenced to a prison sentence of three years and mandatory psychiatric treatment at a tbs facility for child abuse in a family that he was babysitting for in the municipality of Hollands Kroon. The court in Haarlem also finds F. guilty of filming and distributing child sex abuse and bestiality.
Good grief! And he got only 3 years! Did he get a gold watch as well?
F. offered himself as a babysitter via Marktplaats and had 11 families that he babysat for in the country. He confessed that he touched the genitals of a toddler who was two years old and filmed it. F. shared the images with 38-year-old Marco H. from Alkmaar who he shared sexual fantasies with.
Sexual fantasies - read sexual perversions
The suspect acted very calculatingly and took the initiative himself. He did not care about the young victim for a moment and was merely concerned with satisfying his sexual urges, the court chair said in the verdict.
The court sentenced H. to a year and a half in prison and mandatory treatment at a psychiatric tbs facility for complicity in the abuse. H. helped by making requests and suggestions that encouraged F. His actions, therefore, contributed to the abuse, the court reasoned. He had no guiding role and was not present during the abuse.
F. was also on trial for abusing a four-year-old in the same family and abusing his cousin, who was 11 years old. F. denied both accusations and the Public Prosecution Service could not find enough evidence to support a conviction. The court acquitted him of these charges.
Both suspects and their lawyers were absent during the court’s verdict on Friday. The punishments are equal to the prosecutor's recommendations. 
Reporting by ANP
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