By Kristina Cooke and Mica Rosenberg
(Reuters) -Multiple employees at the largest shelter provider for unaccompanied migrant children in the United States sexually abused and harassed minors in their care, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged in a lawsuit filed this week.
The lawsuit in the Western District of Texas, alleges a "pattern" of "severe or pervasive sexual harassment" going back to at least 2015 in the network of shelters run by the Austin, Texas-based non-profit Southwest Key, which contracts with the federal government to care for young migrants arriving in the U.S. without parents or legal guardians.
The complaint includes alleged cases of "severe sexual abuse and rape, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for sexually inappropriate relationships, sexual comments and gestures."
Migrant children who arrive at the border unaccompanied are housed by the U.S. government before being released to sponsors in the United States, usually parents or close relatives.
Southwest Key operates 29 shelters that provide temporary housing for unaccompanied children in Texas, Arizona and California, under grants from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Justice Department said Southwest Key failed to protect the children in its care and did not consistently follow federal requirements for preventing, detecting and reporting abuse.
In a 2022 case detailed in the complaint, a Southwest Key employee allegedly repeatedly sexually abused a five-year-old girl, an eight-year-old girl, and an 11-year-old girl at Casa Franklin in El Paso, Texas. The eight-year-old girl said the employee threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse, the complaint alleges.
In another case, from 2020, an employee took a 15-year-old boy from Casa Kokopelli in Arizona to a hotel room for several days and paid him for sex acts. In both cases, the abuse was documented in Southwest Key's own reports, according to the lawsuit.
"Sexual harassment of children in residential shelters, where a child should be safe and secure, is abusive, dehumanizing and unlawful," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement on Thursday.
Southwest Key spokesperson Anais Biera Miracle said in a statement the complaint did "not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children." The shelter operator said it continues to partner with the U.S. government, as it has for the past two decades, to ensure the children it houses are safe.
There have been a record number of migrant crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico during the administration of President Joe Biden. Biden, a Democrat, is running for re-election against Republican former President Donald Trump who has made criticisms of current border policy a center of his campaign.
Since fiscal year 2021 through June of this year more than 500,000 unaccompanied minors have arrived at the southwest border, according to U.S. government data.