The Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) will stop placing Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) in care and placement shelters operated by Southwest Key Programs Incorporated. The move was announced as a measure by the Trump administration to end sexual abuse and harassment of UACs placed in the facilities during the search for sponsors in the United States.
Southwest Key operates 27 residential shelters that provide temporary living arrangements for UACs in Texas, Arizona, and California and has been the largest provider of such shelters for unaccompanied alien children in the United States. Southwest Key operates these shelters through grants from the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement. These children are minors who enter the United States without parents or other legal guardians and lawful immigration status in the United States.
On Wednesday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the decision to stop placement and immediately relocate UACs currently in Southwest Key facilities to other shelters. In a statement announcing the decision to terminate placement of UACs at Southwest Key Programs, Kennedy stated the following, “This administration is working fearlessly to end the tragedy of human trafficking and other abuses of unaccompanied alien children who enter the country illegally.”
“For too long, pernicious actors have exploited such children both before and after they enter the United States. Today’s action is a significant step toward ending this appalling abuse of innocents,” Kennedy added.
Texas-based Southwest Key Programs Inc., which runs the impacted shelters, announced on Tuesday that it would furlough 5,000 employees working at the non-profit facilities nationwide. According to HHS records, Southwest Key received over $2 billion in federal funding for shelter services for UACs between 2021 and 2024 under the Biden administration.
According to the Department of Justice, in July 2024, the department filed a civil lawsuit against Southwest Key, alleging that it had, through its employees, subjected unaccompanied alien children in its care to unlawful sexual harassment and abuse. The agency will now part ways with Southwest Key programs out of continuing concerns relating to these placements. According to the DOJ, a review of federal grants with the organization will begin. The Department of Justice dismissed its lawsuit against Southwest Key following HHS’s action.
In the DOJ announcement, Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated, “Securing our border and protecting children from abuse are among the most critical missions of the Department of Justice and the Trump administration, under the border policies of the previous administration, bad actors were incentivized to exploit children and break our laws: this ends now.”
Under the Biden administration, HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) received referrals to care for 468,929 unaccompanied alien children abandoned at the U.S.-Mexico border between 2021 and 2024. In 2020, during the last full year of the Trump administration’s first term, ORR received only 15,381 referrals for UAC arrests at the border.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
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