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Southwest Key Programs has filed a motion to dismiss a complaint brought by the federal government alleging the nonprofit that houses migrant children violated the Fair Housing Act, or FHA, by failing to prevent the sexual abuse and sexual harassment of children by employees.
The Department of Justice filed the litigation on July 17 in an Austin court alleging that from at least 2015 through 2023 employees of the nonprofit subjected unaccompanied migrant 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.”
At the time of the DOJ’s complaint, Southwest Key Chief Communications Officer Anais Biera Miracle said the nonprofit’s primary focus is on the safety, health and well-being of all of the children it cares for.
Miracle also said the complaint does not present an accurate picture of the care and commitment the organization’s employees provide to youth and children.
That complaint details numerous incidents of sexual abuse, harassment and intimidation across the organizations shelters in the Rio Grande Valley, Arizona and California. Southwest Key Programs is the largest organization in the United States that works with the federal government to house migrant children at its 29 facilities.
“We are in constant communication and continue to closely partner with the Officer of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), as we have done so for the past two decades to ensure the children and youth entrusted to our care are safe with us during their short stay with Southwest Key,” Miracle said in the statement.
In the motion to dismiss, the nonprofit said it takes pride in its record of providing safe shelter care and vehemently denies the allegations of sexual abuse, harassment or misconduct.
“To the contrary, Southwest Key complies with a comprehensive and robust set of federal laws and regulations, state licensing regulations, contracts, and policies precisely to prevent any such conduct,” the motion stated. “As the Department of Justice is aware, most of the alleged misconduct described in the Complaint was never substantiated.
“The fact that ORR continues today to contract with Southwest Key—its largest private provider of shelter care—confirms there is no ‘pattern or practice’ of misconduct or noncompliance.”
In short, Southwest Key Programs argues that the Fair Housing Act doesn’t apply to shelter care facilities operated by federal contractors because they are not “dwellings.”
The nonprofit argues that this is important because a “dwelling” is where a person chooses to live from which they can freely leave, which is not the case with children held by the nonprofit.
“To be clear, nothing in this Motion diminishes the seriousness with which Southwest Key takes allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct,” the motion stated. “But the FHA is not the vehicle to address them, and it would create a troubling precedent to extend the FHA dramatically beyond its intended scope here.”
