An Associated Press (AP) investigation has found that migrant children detained by the Trump administration continue to be traumatized by their ongoing jailing, “acting out, sometimes hitting each other,” while the so-called “non-profits” holding lucrative federal contracts “struggle to deal with escalating problems,” including children trying to run away. One facility, the AP reported, “was cited for improperly restraining a 6-year-old boy who tried in July to climb a playground fence and run away.”
Mentioned numerous times in the report is Southwest Key, which has a nearly $460 million dollar contract with the Trump administration to detain migrant kids. Yet, with all those hundreds of millions, the so-called “non-profit” saw two of its Arizona facilities recently shut down for failing to provide fingerprint records for some employees. “One former employee was convicted this year of sexually abusing multiple boys,” the AP continued. “Meanwhile, in Texas, Southwest Key is pushing to expand. It has sued Houston after local officials tried to stop the opening of a facility.”
But one Southwest Key facility in the state, Casa El Presidente, was also named in the report for failing to stop a fight where one boy was knocked down by another child following a playground argument and then kicked in the face. Casa El Presidente staff "never” made any “efforts to move Franklin away from Luis,” an inspector wrote. According to the AP, “the inspector cited the facility for not properly intervening to stop the kicks.”
Meanwhile, children are suffering from long-term trauma to the point where they have disassociated from their parents. When one three-year-old child was reunited with his parents several months of separation by the Trump administration, it was like he was meeting two strangers. "Being in detention can be a form of trauma," pediatrician Alan Shapiro told the AP. "We can't treat children for trauma while we're traumatizing them at the same time."
“Jeff Eller, a spokesman for Southwest Key, acknowledged that staff morale has suffered this year due to the unprecedented demand,” but the administration is intentionally keeping these facilities packed and staff overburdened by intentionally roadblocking the release of kids to sponsors, leading to a record number of migrant children—approximately 14,000—in U.S. custody. Children belong with their families, period.