Southwest Key to close two child migrant shelters in Texas amid lapse in federal funds

In this June 18, 2018, photo, dignitaries take a tour of Southwest Key Programs Casa Padre, a U.S. immigration facility in Brownsville, Texas, where children are detained. In this June 18, 2018, photo, dignitaries take a tour of Southwest Key Programs Casa Padre, a U.S. immigration facility in Brownsville, Texas, where children are detained. Photo: Miguel Roberts, MBI / Associated Press Photo: Miguel Roberts, MBI / Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Southwest Key to close two child migrant shelters in Texas amid lapse in federal funds 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Southwest Key, a nonprofit that operates shelters for thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, will close two Texas shelters due at least in part to an "unexpected loss of federal funding."

The Austin-based nonprofit will close one shelter in Conroe, Texas, north of Houston, in October, according to a letter filed with the state. A second shelter in Harlingen, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border will also close, Southwest Key spokesperson Neil Nowlin said.

The shelter in Conroe, at 10393 League Line Road, has the capacity for 160 unaccompanied minors. The number of children that can be housed at the Harlingen shelter was not immediately available. The children currently housed at both shelters will be moved to other Southwest Key shelters, Nowlin said in a statement.

Southwest Key did not provide further details about when and where the children would be transferred to at this time. Southwest Key runs more than two dozen migrant childcare facilities in Texas, Arizona and California.

Southwest Key, which had more than $400 million in federal contracts in 2018 to house many of the immigrant children who crossed the southern U.S. border, wrote in its letter to the Texas Workforce Commission that the Conroe location would close Oct. 1 due to a loss of federal funding. However, Southwest Key declined to provide specifics on the loss of funding and attributed the termination of the leases to a "variety of issues."

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The organization recently obtained proper city permits to open another shelter for unaccompanied migrant children after a long battle with both Houston advocates and city leaders to stop the facility at 419 Emancipation, which is now operational and has the capacity for 200 minors.

The nonprofit had scaled back its proposal to limit housing to 16- and 17-year-olds rather than younger children, which moved the proposal forward. There are four Southwest Key unaccompanied minor shelters in Houston, according a city spokesperson.

Southwest Key was largely criticized for housing migrant children separated from their parents at the southern U.S. border, and was under investigation by the Justice Department for misuse of government funds, according to a New York Times report in December, and the nonprofit's chief executive and chief financial officer resigned in the spring amid reports of mismanagement of government funds. A spokesperson for the Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on the status of the investigation.

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Border Patrol agents encountered more than 53,000 families and nearly 9,000 unaccompanied minors between ports of entry in March. Families and children make up more than two-thirds of all migrants apprehended at the southern border, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis in April.

The closure in Conroe will result in 197 workers being laid off, according to the letter the nonprofit sent to the state.