OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:34 PM – Monday, March 17, 2025
According to tax filings and data that the press obtained, a Texas-based provider of lodging for “unaccompanied migrant children” received billions of dollars in subsidies from the Biden administration.
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Southwest Key Programs, the organization that operates shelter facilities for unaccompanied migrant children, then utilized the backlash of surfacing sexual abuse and harassment claims to increase and even triple the wages of some of its executives — possibly anticipating that their shelters would shutter.
As border crossings reached an all-time high under President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) compiled data showing that Southwest Key Programs collected approximately $3 billion in federal taxpayer funds between fiscal years 2021 and 2024 to “shelter and place migrant children with U.S. sponsors.”
Executives at the nonprofit organization in Austin, Texas, also received significantly more take-home pay during that time frame. According to the most recent tax returns, the group’s president revealed the staggering 139% increase in wages, according to the New York Post.
Investigations and a federal lawsuit were launched against Southwest Key at the same time. The serious claims alleged that several of the migrant children under its care had been sexually abused and harassed by staff members, or even turned over to human traffickers.
After taking over as the group’s president and CEO in February 2021, Anselmo Villarreal received $491,642 for the first fiscal year. However, by fiscal year 2023, his pay had skyrocketed to $1,174,551.
The pay of other key executives at Southwest, including Chief Technology Officer Andy Harper and Chief Human Resources Official Jose Arroyo Davila, also increased to around $600,000.
In fiscal year 2021, the company’s CFO, Eric Marin, made $349,232. Yet, two years later, Roberto Flores, his replacement, collected a $583,139 annual salary.
Geraldo Rivera, the Senior Vice President of Immigration Services, who later became the Chief Program Officer, was another high earner mentioned. In the year prior to Biden’s departure, his salary increased from $312,791 to $555,998.
These executives and a dozen other top-level staff at Southwest Key documented those six-figure compensation hikes over the first two years of the Biden administration, with raises ranging from 10% to as high as 112% — according to additional internal payment records that the New York Post was able to obtain.
Christina Cantu, the head of staff for Southwest Key Programs, for instance, was earning $86,300 in 2019. Later, in 2022, Cantu’s income rose to $326,228.
In September 2020, a report from the HHS Office of Inspector General also discovered that Southwest Key had been enriching its executives through bonuses and increased compensation. The top five executive salaries shown on forms submitted to the IRS increased from $420,000 to $720,000 on average between 2021 and 2023.
Prior to the release of the group’s 2023 filings, The Free Press first reported on Southwest Key’s upward-trending salary under Biden in May 2024.
Although the nonprofit has received $6 billion in federal funds since 2003, Biden’s HHS distributed around half of that amount. Nonetheless, the children in its care did not benefit, or receive better care from the whopping financial boost, according to an insider with direct knowledge of the matter.
Then, in July, the Justice Department filed a controversial lawsuit against Southwest Key Programs, claiming that certain managers and staff members were taking part in “severe” and “pervasive” rape and sexual abuse of the children — from 2015 to 2023. Additionally, the organization placed illegal alien minors with unscreened sponsors who allegedly sex trafficked or exploited them, as revealed by congressional investigations.
“Not only did the Biden-Harris administration create the worst border crisis in American history — it empowered opportunistic nonprofits like Southwest Key Programs and Endeavors to profit off it,” stated House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.).
“This Congress, the Homeland Security Committee has continued uncovering the Biden administration’s use of taxpayer funds to fuel its border boondoggle,” he added.
“We remain committed to ensuring the federal government is a good steward of taxpayers’ hard-earned money and will be vigilantly pursuing those who unduly profited at the expense of innocent Americans.”
Last year, Villarreal, the group’s president and CEO, received a letter from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), alerting him to some startling testimonies of whistleblowers that had been sent to his office. They maintained that they were exposing “possible child-trafficking rings” among those Southwest Key Programs sponsors.
In one instance, a migrant child had been taken to a home with “likely MS-13” gang members — according to one of the whistleblowers.
Grassley also sent a letter on Monday accusing Southwest Key of providing only “lazy and obstructive” answers to records requests.
On Wednesday, the HHS declared in a statement that it will no longer provide anymore federal funding to the nonprofit organization based in Texas, and the DOJ withdrew from its civil prosecution against Southwest Key.
“Out of continuing concerns relating to these placements, HHS has decided to stop placement of unaccompanied alien children in Southwest Key facilities, and to review its grants with the organization,” said the public health agency, which coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security.
“In view of HHS’ action, the Department of Justice has dismissed its lawsuit against Southwest Key.”
In a statement released on Wednesday, a representative for Southwest Key Programs wrote that the organization “strongly denied the claims relating to child sexual abuse in our shelters” and was “pleased” that the DOJ case had been dismissed.
“There is no settlement or payment required,” the spokesperson noted, later blaming the Trump administration’s imposed government funding freeze.
A spokeswoman for Grassley chimed in to comment on the controversy.
“It is disgusting that vulnerable children suffered sexual abuse under Southwest Key’s watch. Senator Grassley has contacted the DOJ seeking clarity regarding its dismissal of the Southwest Key lawsuit, and looks forward to a follow-up conversation soon.”
After being released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which worked with HHS on sponsor placement in the U.S., at least 32,000 migrant children “vanished” in the U.S., according to a report released by the DHS inspector general in August 2024.
The research discovered that after DHS and HHS agreed to stop requiring “biographic and biometric (fingerprints) information for all potential sponsors and adult members of their household,” an additional 291,000 were made available to the domestic sponsors, not all of whom had undergone adequate screening.
“This administration is working fearlessly to end the tragedy of human trafficking and other abuses of unaccompanied alien children who enter the country illegally,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said, referencing the termination of Southwest Key Programs grants.
“For too long, pernicious actors have exploited such children both before and after they enter the United States. Today’s action is a significant step toward ending this appalling abuse of innocents.”
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