The New York Postreported that Leonel Moreno, who went viral for bragging about all the money he was making in government benefits, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers this March for skipping out on the terms of his probation after entering the country illegally.
The Post’sHomeland Security source said that, after he was arrested, intelligence officers examined Moreno’s history and life in his home country, discovering that he was a sergeant of the Venezuelan general directorate of military intelligence.
On April 23, 2022, 27-year-old Moreno crossed the border illegally into Eagle Pass, Texas, and was released into the country but skipped out on required check-ins with ICE, which resulted in his arrest.
Several Border Patrol agents told the news source that getting information from foreign countries is difficult and, in the case of Venezuela, almost impossible because the government there is unwilling to communicate with American authorities.
“Knowing who these guys are, we have no access to anything International. We really don’t, and it kind of sucks. I wanted to get into the Border Patrol and protect [my country] from terrorists. And it’s like, well, I probably let terrorists in the country,” one border agent said.
Moreno remains in custody at the Geauga County Jail in Ohio and is set to see an immigration judge today. ThePost’s sources say he’s been having trouble finding the money to hire an attorney, so the judge presiding over his immigration case has kept delaying his appearance.
Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand said Moreno has been laying low in jail.
“I don’t know of any problems that we’ve had with him. He’s in with the rest of the ICE inmates,” he said.
Trump pledged to implement reforms that would allow him to fire up to 50,000 bureaucrats at will, singling out those who are incompetent, unnecessary or undermine his anti-establishment mandate, the Daily Caller reported.
“The first rendition of the Trump administration was really, really difficult, and we saw a mass exodus of employees retiring. If we do have an administration shift, other employees will also reconsider their positions and move to the private sector. I don’t know what I’ll end up doing,” a National Park Service employee said.
Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019, said that government employees who didn’t retire during Trump’s first term worked internally to deliberately obstruct his agenda. Taylor admitted that he was among those doing that.
The corrupt officials also became worried because Trump would probably appoint conservative administrators.
“He’s going to get people in place who are more intelligent and loyal to him. Now I think he could do a lot of damage,” a park service employee said.
The news source reported that Trump would reclassify many federal employees as Schedule F employees to replace them. In April 2024, the Biden administration finalized a rule preventing their status from being changed involuntarily. However, Trump’s allies have shrugged off the rule, saying that Trump could reverse it.
Since most of these government employees already admitted that Trump would win the election, a senior employee at the Interior Department said they decided to concentrate on ensuring that the Biden administration’s policies would be very hard to repeal.
“The concern hasn’t been focused on who the Democratic nominee is as much as concerns about Trump winning and what that would mean. From everyone’s perspective, it is to get as much done as possible. Also, they are trying to bury into the agency programs [like environmental justice] so they can survive a Trump administration,” the officials said.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Secret Service has denied the expedited processing of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request related to the recent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, citing a lack of urgency.
The FOIA request, filed by America First Legal (AFL), sought documents regarding the total number of Secret Service agents hired through 2023 and information about personnel and targets within the sub-departments of the federal agency.
AFL submitted the request less than a week after Thomas Crooks wounded Trump and killed firefighter chief Corey Comperatore, who heroically protected his wife and daughters during the vicious shooting.
Corey Comperatore's funeral is being held today.
He was a brave patriot who gave his life to protect his family.
His casket, delivered by a firetruck, was draped in an American flag.
Despite the significant public interest in these documents and DHS regulations allowing for expedited processing, the Secret Service claimed AFL did not qualify for this special handling.
The agency asserted that AFL did not demonstrate “that there is a threat to the life of physical safety of an individual” or a “particular urgency” to inform Americans about the requested documents.
🚨BREAKING — Biden’s Secret Service is delaying the processing of a FOIA we filed following the assassination attempt of President Trump because they claim there is not:
1. Any threat to the life or safety of anyone; 2. Any urgency to inform the public about gov’t activity. pic.twitter.com/OtVebpzqSJ
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) July 19, 2024
“Your letter was conclusory, in nature, and did not present any facts to justify a grant of expedited processing under the applicable standards,” the Secret Service stated in a letter addressed to AFL’s Will Scolinos.
In a tweet announcing the denied request, AFL accused the Secret Service of “delaying the processing of a FOIA we filed following the assassination attempt of President Trump.”
This FOIA request comes amid mounting calls for Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle’s immediate resignation.
Security experts have criticized major security failures at the Pennsylvania rally where Trump was nearly killed.
On Wednesday, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chastised Cheatle at the Republican National Convention, demanding transparency about the shooting.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Some of President Joe Biden’s staunch defenders are complaining about anonymous sources in media reports that suggest growing efforts to push Biden out of the 2024 ticket over concerns about his ability to win the election.
At the center of these complaints are headlines citing unnamed sources who, among other things, claim Biden will quit the race as soon as this weekend. Other sources claim Biden will not endorse Kamala Harris, his equally unpopular running mate, to replace him.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, who serves as co-chair of the Biden campaign, criticized her allies for leaking information about the Democratic Party’s mishaps with Biden leading the ticket.
“While some folks are commenting to reporters anonymously, the rest of us are on the record and working hard to make sure that we win this election in November,” she said during a CNN interview on Friday morning.
Recalling alleged conversations with constituents, Escobar added, “Their perception is that our nominee is being attacked from within by anonymous sources and reporters are reporting on all of this anonymous gossip.”
The Texas Democrat claimed to have spoken with the Biden campaign and the White House, who both refuted allegations triggering damning headlines. “Yet reporters continue to quote anonymous sources,” she said.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates also criticized the extensive reporting published without prior requests for comment from the White House.
“Most every reporter we deal with is good about this as they go about their important and difficult jobs,” he wrote, “But for the outliers, a polite reminder: *we* are aware that *you* are aware that you have a responsibility to come to us for comment *before* publishing.”
Reacting to Bates’s complaints, Tim Murtaugh, the former communications director of the 2020 Trump Campaign, wrote, “It takes enormous arrogance and a colossal sense of entitlement for Biden White House staffers to claim unfair treatment by the media.”
It takes enormous arrogance and a colossal sense of entitlement for Biden White House staffers to claim unfair treatment by the media.
This particular jabroni, @AndrewBates46, has been the worst offender in lying about Biden’s condition.
This is not the first time Bates has criticized the media for hostility, a challenge many Republican communications staffers have faced in the past.
In a tweet, Bates complained about The New York Times giving the White House less than seven minutes to comment on a story.
“That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so,” Bates stated.
That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so. https://t.co/SRTYIVTy7v
Escobar’s and Bates’s grievances contrast sharply with some of their colleagues’ reliance on anonymous sources to attack then-President Donald Trump.
Most infamously, Democrats hailed the author initially dubbed “Anonymous,” behind the book A Warning.
The book claimed there was a resistance within the Trump administration pushing back against the policies that American voters elected Trump to implement.
The author was later revealed to be Miles Taylor, a mid-level staffer at the Trump-led DHS and a Biden supporter.
A Morning Consult poll released on July 15, 2024, showed that one in three registered Democrats believe it is “credible” that the July 13, 2024, shooting in Butler, Pa., was staged and not intended to kill Trump.
According to the poll, large swaths of the Democratic base have fallen prey to the phenomenon known as “BlueAnon.” The word refers to the far left’s boogeyman, QAnon, a conspiracy theory that the mass media claimed was adopted by many Republicans and Trump supporters, specifically.
The recent poll highlighted that BlueAnon believers among Democrats far outnumber their QAnon counterparts among Republicans.
It showed that 34% of Democratic voters found it either definitely or probably credible that Trump staged Saturday’s shooting, with only 45% of Democrats saying the conspiracy theory is not plausible. On the other hand, a widely cited poll from 2021 found that only 23% of Republicans were QAnon believers.
The Washington Free Beacon stated that the reason why BlueAnon became so popular among the Left could be attributed to prominent Democratic activists and leftist media commentators saying that Trump staged the assassination attempt.
“This is a classic Russian tactic, such as when Putin killed 300 civilians in 1999 and blamed it on terrorists to ride the backlash to winning power,” Democratic powerbroker Dmitri Mehlhorn, a Joe Biden’s ally who has made at least 10 visits to his White House, wrote.
Neither Mehlhorn nor any other far-left propagandist addressed the numerous photos that captured bullets whizzing just inches away from Trump’s face and blood running from the clearly visible bullet wound across his right ear.
As expected, none of them also mentioned that one person, firefighter Corey Comperatore, died at the rally protecting his wife and daughters by shielding them from the bullets with his body.
(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Before officially deciding to make Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, the running mate on his presidential ticket, former president Donald Trump seriously discussed the possibility of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum with Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, according to NOTUS.
In fact, several reports indicated that Murdoch attempted to persuade Trump to choose anyone but Vance, possibly thinking Burgum’s milquetoast conservatism would not ruffle any feathers.
Murdoch repeatedly called Trump, and even sent executives to meet him in person to discuss Burgum as the potential VP.
However, the oldest Trump sons, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, convinced the former president to choose Vance in the end.
Murdoch and Trump previously butted heads over the 2024 GOP primary, in which the former endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—a fact that Trump has not forgotten.
“There was a time where, if you wanted to survive in the Republican Party, you had to bend the knee to him or to others,” Don Jr. said of Murdoch in an interview with Axios. “I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”
The relationship between the Trump family and Fox News continued to strain after the station blacklisted Don Jr. for bringing former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to the green room on Tuesday during the Republican National Convention.
Carlson had been the network’s top-rated primetime host until Fox unceremoniously fired him last year for reasons that remain largely speculative.
Don Jr., who had dinner plans with Carlson that evening, was first conducting an interview on Sean Hannity’s show.
Several Fox News staffers reportedly became uncomfortable with Carlson’s presence; others said it was nice to see him again.
“There was no ill will,” said one staff member. “Tucker was in the greenroom and then in the studio. A handful of people that were in there were walking up and talking to him.”
Carlson, who had lobbied for Vance’s selection over Burgum and (like Vance) has vocally opposed U.S. involvement in Ukraine, congratulated the Ohio senator on in his speech at the RNC on Thursday.
“A president’s duty is to his citizens, and [Trump] seems to be the only one who thinks that,” Carlson explained.
“And in his choice for vice president, J.D. Vance, he’s made that really clear,” Carlson added. “… J.D. Vance has views that are closer to Trump’s voters than anyone else in Washington in office; therefore, he’s the vice president–that’s called democracy!”
Both sides are getting are getting in on the action. Leftists appear to be convinced that the entire event was staged, with former President Donald Trump evidently palming a squib as he smacked his ear.
I hate conspiracy theories because they avoid the open conspiracies we see with our eyes – for rabbit hole nonsense – that said – It’s unthinkable that the secret service doesn’t cover the ONE ROOF staring at the stage – zero chance . Also, no secret service action in…
It is unclear whether they regard slain firefighter Corey Comperatore and others injured at the scene as a crisis actors or simply collateral damage, or if their Trump Derangement Syndrome allows them at this point to even process that much information.
Conservatives have gravitated more toward suspicions that it was a setup, given the fact that Trump’s Secret Service detail was desperately underprepared to perform their one job and they, along with local law enforcement, made it all too easy for a 20-year-old nerd who learned how to shoot from YouTube to waltz into position and set up what would have been the perfect kill shot, but for divine intervention.
Regardless, the consensus seems to be that, just like the 2020 election, the facts don’t seem to add up, and government officials’ efforts to circle the wagons and stonewall those seeking answers are doing little to assuage the skeptics.
CNN snaps at Rep. Cory Mills for saying J13 should be investigated.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) July 16, 2024
In an interview Tuesday with CNN’s Kate Bolduan at the Republican National Convention, Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., a former Army paratrooper and security specialist for a military contractor, said that the number of bizarre irregularities at least warranted an investigation that examined every credible hypothesis—including a government-linked plot to kill the frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race.
If one can accept that possibility as the underlying premise, then the ensuing questions naturally turn to whodunit, why and how.
AN AXIS OF EVIL
George W. Bush and Michelle Obama share a moment, flanked by their spouses. / IMAGE: CBS Evening News via YouTube
Although the Biden administration enticingly beckons as the low-hanging fruit on the conspiracy tree, some have already posited an alternative culprit—one that some astute left-wing media pointed out was notably absent from the recent GOP convention.
Republican voters are noticing that neither Bush, the last GOP president, nor Pence, Trump's last VP, are willing to appear with Trump at the RNC in Milwaukee. That speaks volumes with a bullhorn…
According to online theorists, on the day before the assassination attempt, only one company—Austin Private Wealth—shorted its stock in Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT), the holding company that controls Truth Social and, more importantly, has become a symbolic stock-market stand-in for Trump’s own rising and falling fortunes.
A company named Austin Private Wealth LLC shorted 12,000,000 shares of $DJT through a put option.
The filing date was July 12th, the day before the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
They manage approximately $1 billion in assets, and this is by far their largest put… pic.twitter.com/GzPD9vxzMm
The short sale suggested some sort of an advance knowledge that the stock was likely to fail. Although several other speculators did this in the early days of DJT, when its price rose to unsustainable levels, it has since fallen down to earth, making the short sale much more of a gamble.
Some noted that a similar investment phenomenon happened with two major airlines just prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks—which conspiracy theorists have long suspected was an inside job perpetrated by the Bush administration to justify war in Iraq, bilk gold from the Federal Reserve or other reasons heretofore unknown.
NEW: Soon-to-be unmasked entities bet that President Trump’s $DJT stock would plummet ONE DAY before the assassination attempt.
Shorts against the Truth Social stock more than doubled from July 1 -July 12, meaning, people or large organizations were predicting that by Monday… pic.twitter.com/axj41kmjpQ
It turns out, photographer Doug Mills was present for both, capturing the iconic photo of then-President George W. Bush supposedly being notified about the terrorist attacks while reading to a group of schoolchildren, and the series of quick-shutter shots that captured the bullet approaching Trump’s head.
President George H.W. Bush gestures during a news conference at the White House in Washington. / PHOTO: AP
Austin Private Wealth, coincidentally—or, perhaps, not—included as a senior policy director former Secretary of State James A. Baker, a close friend and confidante of the Bush family who also served as chief of staff to George H.W. Bush, Treasury secretary under Ronald Reagan, and chief legal adviser to Dubya during the 2000 election.
It may have been Baker’s foreign policy that helped inspire the “new world order”—which Bush 41 wove into a notorious speech before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 11, 1990, extolling the virtues of globalism.
And it may have been Baker who inspired the likes of George Soros to begin leveraging his immense financial resources to elect secretaries of state, district attorneys and other state- and local-level officials who could selectively interpret and enforce the laws at their discretion—a lesson that Democrats learned from their defeat in Florida when the Bushes wielded their institutional power to prevail over Al Gore by halting the count of provisional ballots in left-leaning counties.
To that end, we have Baker to thank, indirectly, at least, for the current lawfare state.
However, the Bush and Soros clans—which may at one point have been rivals jockeying for power and influence in their global playground—found a mutual adversary in the isolationist policies of the Trump administration.
Now, it seems, these strange bedfellows may be working toward the same dark purposes.
The plot thickens. The Bushes, the Soroses, BlackRock. Seems an alliance of dark forces aligned for this devilish deed.
Alex and George Soros pose for a photo. / IMAGE: @Travis_in_Flint
Twitter sleuths linked Austin Private Wealth not only to the Bushes, but also to Soros and to woke investment companies such as BlackRock and Vanguard.
REVEALED: The firm that took the suspicious and enormous bet against President Trump’s Truth Social stock ($DJT) ONE DAY before the assassination attempt is Austin Private Wealth LLC, majority held by George Soros’ Vanguard and BlackRock.
Although the links may be tenuous at times, the bigger question relates to whether the key players had the means and motive to plot such a conspiracy and whether it was strictly profit-driven or connected with a larger framework for how the plutocracy hopes to sway the direction of American politics.
Alarmingly, several other connections have been made between suspected shooter Thomas Crooks and the multitrillion-dollar BlackRock investment firm.
Crooks, 20 at the time of his death, was revealed to have been featured in a commercial for the company while in high school.
EXCLUSIVE:
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20 year old shooter who tried assassinating President Donald Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last night, was featured in a BlackRock @BlackRock ad in 2023!
The coincidence seemed significant enough that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote a letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink asking for further clarification about the shooter’s possible ties to the company, which has played a heavy role in supporting the Ukraine war that Trump is likely to withdraw from if elected.
Not only did Austin Private Wealth short 12 million shares of Trump's $DJT stock before his attempted assassination, but they also shorted 34 million shares of Rumble at exactly the same time.
In addition to a connection to the Bush family through James A. Baker, the largest… pic.twitter.com/R7QQvF7OZ0
Meanwhile, George Soros’s son, Alex, who has taken over much of his elderly father’s empire, issued dogwhistle calls in January appearing to signal to his followers that they should assassinate Trump by posting an image of a bullet hole followed by a second image of $47 (Trump, if re-elected would be the 47th president).
Last year, the crime and inflation crises largely evaporated. So did the leading theories about what had caused them. https://t.co/WguJQkj1PG
Of course, some of the same key players invested in Austin Private Wealth also happen to be invested in CrowdStrike, the DNC-linked company whose security software on Friday led to a global IT meltdown, fueling even more conspiracy theories.
Here’s the list of major investors into CrowdStrike.
Perhaps the lesson is that one cannot form too many conclusions based on the investments of companies that cast such wide nets. Or perhaps the plots of these events are nefariously interconnected, after all.
AN EERIE PARALLEL
Statue of Theodore Roosevelt in front of the American Museum of Natural History, in New York./AP Photo
Appropriately enough, Trump’s situation somewhat echoes another failed assassination attempt in U.S. history.
In 1912, while delivering a speech in Milwaukee, Wisc., former President Teddy Roosevelt was attempting to run for reelection for a nonconsecutive term when he was shot in the chest by John Schrank, a German-born saloonkeeper later deemed to be insane.
The bullet pierced Roosevelt’s glasses case and a 50-page, single-folded speech in his breastpocket. Since he was not coughing blood, Roosevelt declined to go to the hospital and proceeded with his speech, declaring “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
Roosevelt ultimately went on to act as a spoiler in that election, drawing votes away from his own hand-picked successor-turned-rival, William Howard Taft, who was, like the Bushes, a member of Yale’s Skull and Bones society.
The victor, progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson, would—like Joe Biden—enact a radically progressive agenda before becoming incapacitated in office, at which point his wife, Edith, secretly ran the White House.
In the immortal words of Mark Twain, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Friends and family of Corey Comperatore gathered at a church in Cabot, Pa., to lay him to rest on July 19, 2024, after the 50-year-old husband and father died protecting his wife and daughters by covering them with his body at a Trump rally on July 13, 2024, after a gunman tried to kill Donald Trump.
After the service, hundreds of fire trucks, some from as far away as Florida, were in a procession from the church to the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company in nearby Sarver, the Post Millennial reported. Comperatore served in the fire department for decades, working his way up to chief.
“Our beloved father and husband, and a friend to so many throughout the Butler region. Our family is finding comfort and peace through the heartfelt messages of encouragement from people around the world, through the support of our church and community and most of all through the strength of God,” the family said in the statement a day before the funeral.
Comperatore spent most of his life in the area, growing up in Sarver, Pa., and attending school in the neighboring town of Freeport, Pa., where he met his wife. They lived in Sarver with their children and often attended the church in Cabot.
Even though the July 19, 2024, service was more intimate, a separate event was held a day before at a banquet hall in Freeport for anyone who wished to pay their respects.
On July 18, 2024, hundreds of people showed up, with a lineup growing to span over a quarter-mile. Law enforcement patrolled the gathering, with two snipers on the roof and more on a building nearby. Officers also watched the crowd to ensure everyone stayed safe inside.
Trump paid respects to Comperatore during his speech at the Republican National Convention, holding a moment of silence.
“There’s no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others. This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours, and this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness. He lost his life selflessly, acting as a human shield to protect [his wife and daughter] from flying bullets,” he said.
Trump also said that people raised $6.3 million for Comperatore’s family as well as the families of the two other people who were injured at the rally.
In addition to that, a separate GoFundMe has brought over $1.3 million.
The news came after Democrats have been claiming for almost a decade that the slogan that is now synonymous with Trump is something that only a Nazi or a racist would say.
RNC Research reposted the clip of an Ohio politician’s statement on Twitter.
Top Biden surrogate Rep. Joyce Beatty: “WE'RE GOING TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” pic.twitter.com/bFO9fyAhyZ
However, before going viral, Beatty started spreading lies about Trump, starting with how high the black unemployment rates were under the Trump administration, even though it was the complete opposite of that, the Gateway Pundit reported.
“Black unemployment and reinsurance rates skyrocketed. His tax scam worsened the racial wealth gap, the typical white household that doubled the cut of a typical black household. Some 300,000 Black Americans lost health insurance in the first two years of his presidency,” Beatty said.
She also talked about how poorly Trump handled COVID-19, which is another lie.
“His COVID-19 response disproportionately left black Americans dead and black-owned businesses shuttered,” she said.
Beatty, who was arrested in 2021 by U.S. Capitol Police for refusing to comply with police orders during a voting rights protest inside the Senate Hart Office Building, also attacked the Jan. 6, 2021, political prisoners for getting inside the Capitol building.
“After losing the 2020 election, we saw Trump put a bow on his failed presidency by encouraging a violent mob to storm the Capitol. I know this. I was there,” she said.
Beatty then lied about how the economy is currently doing under Biden.
“Thanks to… Biden’s leadership, look how far we’ve come. There are nearly 16 million new jobs. We hit the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years, and black unemployment hit historic loans. We’re seeing record economic growth and new business creations, including black small businesses, start-up at the fastest rate in 30 years,” she said.
After that, she made her viral comment, stealing the slogan that was considered hateful and bigoted by the Left five seconds ago.
“We create opportunities for everyone and make sure the super-wealthy finally pay their fair share. Yes, this November, we want to make America great again! And we’re going to do it by defeating Donald Trump at the ballot,” Beatty said.
On July 14, 2024, Biden tried to repeat the slogan but restrained himself from doing so because Democrats had not decided yet to steal it.
JUST NOW: Biden comes dangerously close to saying Make America Great Again.
(Headline USA) Employees of the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S. repeatedly sexually abused 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.
The DOJ’s lawsuit comes in the wake of shocking whistleblower allegations against Cherokee Federal, another federal contractor that provided housing for migrant children. That story can be found here.
Zero Coverage on this today: During a hearing on Capitol Hill today, multiple whistleblowers from various government agencies responsible for unaccompanied migrant children came forward to claim that the US government (HHS), in collaboration with a federal contractor named… pic.twitter.com/YpaLAzY2VZ
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 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 Tucson, Arizona, took an 11-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.
