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By Sarah N. Lynch and Ryan Patrick Jones
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Department of Justice dropped a civil rights lawsuit filed last year against the national nonprofit Southwest Key Programs alleging its employees had sexually abused unaccompanied minors who were housed in its shelters after entering the country illegally, according to a court filing on Wednesday.
The department decided to drop the lawsuit after the Department of Health and Human Services stopped the placement of unaccompanied migrant children in shelters operated by Southwest Key and initiated a review of its grants with the organization, HHS said in a press release on Wednesday. The health department said it has moved all children in Southwest Key shelters to other shelters.
"For too long, pernicious actors have exploited such children both before and after they enter the United States," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in the release. "Today’s action is a significant step toward ending this appalling abuse of innocents.”
Austin, Texas-based nonprofit Southwest Key contracts with the federal government to care for young migrants arriving in the U.S. without parents or legal guardians, and has operated 27 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California. It is the largest provider of shelter to unaccompanied minor children.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit in July 2024 in the Western District of Texas alleging a "pattern" of "severe or pervasive sexual harassment" going back to at least 2015 in the network of Southwest Key shelters.
The complaint included 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."
Lawyers representing the Justice Department and Southwest Key submitted a joint motion for dismissal on Wednesday, the court record shows.
Southwest Key denied the allegations.
"Southwest Key strongly denied the claims relating to child sexual abuse in our shelters, and there is no settlement or payment required. We are glad this matter is now concluded. We always believed the facts would prove the allegations to be without merit," its spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that South West Key was furloughing about 5,000 program employees, citing a federal funding freeze.
The plans to dismiss the case were first reported by Bloomberg. The news outlet reported that an attorney for Southwest Key had reached out to the Justice Department and asked it to dismiss the matter, saying the case could hinder the crackdown on illegal immigration by President Donald Trump's administration.
The abrupt reversal by the Justice Department comes at a time when Attorney General Pam Bondi has made combating illegal immigration take priority over other initiatives that were pursued during President Joe Biden's administration.
In response to the Justice Department's decision, the National Center for Youth Law sent a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Alan D. Albright seeking to intervene in the case, in a bid to keep the case alive.
The center asked Albright to delay a ruling on the Justice Department's motion to dismiss by 30 days and allow it to file an intervening motion "on behalf of intervenors whose interests are no longer protected by the United States," according to the letter written by the center's co-director of litigation, David Hinojosa.
"Until today, the United States has faithfully sought to uphold the rule of law by prosecuting claims and seeking relief that would help both protect unaccompanied children and compensate them for their damages," Hinojosa wrote.
"Countless children now risk being denied any recourse for the terrible harms suffered while in the care of Southwest Key."
The court record shows Albright accepted the joint motion to dismiss and ordered the case closed.
The National Center for Youth Law also wrote a letter to Republican Senator Chuck Grassley urging him to call on the Justice Department to explain its reasons for dropping the lawsuit and identify who made the decision.
"Given your history of advocating for the safety of unaccompanied children, we respectfully request your office’s continued leadership to protect these children and hold accountable all entities - public or private - that jeopardize their welfare," wrote Johnathan Smith, the center's chief of staff and general counsel.
Grassley's spokesperson Clare Slattery said the senator has contacted the Justice Department seeking clarity about the lawsuit's dismissal, and "looks forward to a follow-up conversation soon."
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Matthew Lewis)
