WASHINGTON — The biggest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children nabbed billions of dollars in grants from the Biden administration — and used the massive windfall to boost and even double some executives’ salaries, according to tax filings and records exclusively obtained by The Post.
Southwest Key Programs pulled down roughly $3 billion in federal taxpayer funds between fiscal years 2021 and 2024, according to data compiled by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to help shelter and place migrant kids with US sponsors as border crossings hit an all-time high under President Joe Biden.
Over roughly the same period, the Austin, Texas-based nonprofit’s higher-ups also raked in much higher take-home pay — with the group’s president disclosing a whopping 139% increase, per the latest tax filings.
At the same time, Southwest Key was hit with investigations — and a federal lawsuit — that alleged some migrant kids in its care were sexually abused by employees or else handed over to traffickers.
Anselmo Villarreal, who became the group’s president and CEO in February 2021, was paid $491,642 over the course of that first fiscal year — but saw his compensation skyrocket to $1,174,551 by fiscal year 2023.
Other Southwest Key executives — including chief human resources official Jose Arroyo Davila and its chief information officer Andy Harper — saw their salaries doubled, to the $600,000 range.
Eric Marin, the organization’s CFO, earned $349,232 in fiscal year 2021, but his successor, Roberto Flores, took down $583,139 two years later.
Another good earner, Geraldo Rivera, the senior VP of immigration services and later chief program officer, surged from $312,791 to $555,998 the year before Biden left office.
According to additional internal payment records obtained by The Post, those executives and a dozen other top employees at Southwest Key recorded those six-figure salary surges during the first two years of the Biden administration — with increases ranging from 10% to as high as 112%.
Southwest Key Programs chief of staff Christina Cantu, for example, was making only $86,300 in 2019. By fiscal year 2022, Cantu’s income was recorded at $326,228.
An HHS Office of Inspector General report in September 2020 had also already found Southwest Key improperly padding their executives’ pockets with higher pay and bonuses.
On average, the top five executive salaries recorded in forms filed with the IRS spiked from $420,000 to $720,000 between 2021 and 2023 — even as its finances were in the red by millions of dollars for two of those three fiscal years.
Those pay hikes also came as a handful of Southwest Key officials — including its top lobbyist Vivian Panting — were sending small-dollar donations to Democratic campaign funds.
Another vice president at the organization, Veronica Delgado-Savage, contributed more than $700 to Biden’s and then Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign and associated PAC, FEC records show. Her income during their administration rose from $297,792 to $326,086.
Southwest Key’s upward-trending pay under Biden was first reported on by The Free Press in May 2024, before the group’s 2023 filings were made public.
Biden’s HHS doled out roughly half of the $6 billion in taxpayer funding the nonprofit has taken in since 2003 — but the cash infusion didn’t improve outcomes for the children in its care.
The Justice Department sued Southwest Key Programs last July, accusing some supervisors and employees of “severe” and “pervasive” rape and sex abuse of the kids between 2015 and 2023.
Congressional investigations had also uncovered evidence that the organization placed the migrant kids who entered the US with unvetted sponsors who allegedly trafficked or exploited them.
“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,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) told The Post.
“This Congress, the Homeland Security Committee has continued uncovering the Biden administration’s use of taxpayer funds to fuel its border boondoggle,” added the chairman, whose panel uncovered some of the non-governmental groups that hit pay dirt.
“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.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote a letter to Villarreal last year informing him of some of the astounding whistleblower testimonies that have been submitted to his office documenting “possible child-trafficking rings” among those sponsors.
One of the whistleblowers revealed that a migrant child had been shuttled to a house with “likely MS-13” gang-affiliated members.
Southwest Key only produced “lazy and obstructive” responses to records requests, according to another letter Grassley fired off on Monday.
Trump’s DOJ withdrew from its civil case against Southwest Key on Wednesday, however, and HHS announced in a statement Wednesday that it will no longer fund the Texas nonprofit.
“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,” noted the public health agency, which coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security to handle the influx of migrant children.
“In view of HHS’ action, the Department of Justice has dismissed its lawsuit against Southwest Key.”
A spokesperson for Southwest Key Programs said in a statement Wednesday that the group was “pleased” about the case’s dismissal and “strongly denied the claims relating to child sexual abuse in our shelters.”
“There is no settlement or payment required,” the spokesperson added, before blaming a Trump admin-imposed government funding freeze for 5,000 layoffs.
A spokeswoman for Grassley told The Post Friday: “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.”
According to an August 2024 report from DHS’ inspector general, at least 32,000 migrant kids went missing in the US after being released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which coordinated with HHS on sponsor placement in the US.
Another 291,000 were released to the domestic sponsors, not all of whom were properly vetted after DHS and HHS reached an agreement to no longer require “biographic and biometric (fingerprints) information for all potential sponsors and adult members of their household,” the report found.
As border crossings climbed in 2022, Biden’s HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra had also been pressuring staff to release migrant children to sponsors as quickly as possible, likening the ideal turnover rate to an “assembly line,” The New York Times reported.
“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 of the termination of Southwest Key Programs grants on Wednesday.
“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.”
A rep for Southwest Key Programs did not respond to requests for comment.
