Former Southwest Key leader who ran migrant child shelters for U.S. government earned $3.6 million in 2017

The former leader of a nonprofit organization that shelters migrant children for the U.S. government resigned this year after it was publicly disclosed that he earned nearly $1.5 million in 2016. New tax records obtained by The Washington Post indicate he earned more than double that — $3.6 million — in total compensation in 2017.

Juan Sanchez, founder of Southwest Key Programs, the Texas-based nonprofit that houses thousands of children and teens for the Department of Health and Human Services, left his job on April 1 amid outrage over his compensation and business dealings. Members of Congress fumed about individuals profiting off migrant detention just as the Trump administration was separating migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, prosecuting adults for illegal entry and shuttling their children to Southwest Key and other shelters.

Southwest Key is one of the main contractors involved in housing unaccompanied migrant children as they wait to be placed with family members or sponsors, housing approximately 4,500 minors in Texas, California and Arizona. The organization cares for just more than one-third of the 12,500 minors in HHS custody. Southwest Key has an annual contract of approximately $460 million a year to shelter children, and federal records show the nonprofit has collected more than $1.1 billion since 2014.

View the complete July 13 article by Maria Sacchetti on The Washington Post website here.