Mired in accusations of self-dealing and abusive conditions within his company’s facilities, the CEO of the so-called non-profit that has received well over $1 billion in federal contracts over a decade to detain migrant kids has resigned. “This was a very difficult decision,” Juan Sanchez wrote in a letter to Southwest Key’s board of directors. He blamed his resignation on a “widespread misunderstanding of our business and unfair criticism of our people,” yet apparently neglected to mention why his company has been under so much scrutiny in the first place.
Numerous Southwest Key employees have been arrested and charged with child molestation. The company, which received $626 million in federal grants last year alone, was threatened with revocation of licenses for all of its Arizona facilities after failing to show proof of background checks for employees. Shocking footage released in late December then showed staffers “dragging and pushing children” inside Southwest Key’s now-closed Hacienda del Sol facility.
Sanchez hasn’t been alone in jumping ship while the company is reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice for its shady business dealings: “The charity’s chief financial officer, Melody Chung, left last month after a New York Times article outlined allegations of mismanagement and possible malfeasance at the charity.” Chung raked in a $1 million salary, while Sanchez pulled in $1.5 million. Sanchez’s wife, another Southwest Key executive who remains with the company, earns half a million.
Exact numbers vary, but Southwest Key is estimated to have received anywhere from $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion in federal contracts over the past ten years. The New York Times estimated that the company was sitting on over $60 million in cash at the end of 2017. Our money is being used to detain as many as 5,000 kids in dozens of facilities across the U.S. Southwest Key touts its modest beginnings, but as Hacienda del Sol has shown in living color, it has lost our confidence. The new Congress must end this contract—now.