It looks like they're trying to brew up a new scandal just in time to kill immigration reform whether Republicans take the Senate or not.
Fox News teased this story Friday morning with Tucker Carlson and the gang:
A California facility which houses illegal immigrant children reportedly boasts organic orchards, a small petting zoo, and guitar lessons – all courtesy of your tax dollars.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is demanding answers from Health and Human Services in a new letter following the revelation.
Actually, it's a Texas non-profit organization which was originally incorporated during Poppy Bush's reign in 1988. Southwest Keys is quite reputable from all I've been able to discern. They're transparent, and committed not only to treating unaccompanied children humanely, but also teaching them and involving them in their various enterprises, which include a flower shop, a green energy enterprise, and a charter school.
Their involvement with unaccompanied minors is to place them with their families as soon as possible. They also work with at-risk kids, and provide juvenile justice alternatives. Here's an excerpt from their website:
In 1987, Dr. Sánchez and his small team of five set up shop in a basement in San Antonio, Texas. Decades later, that small team has grown to a workforce of over 2,200 and expanded to serve youth in multiple states and cities across the country.
Southwest Key Programs is a nationally accredited nonprofit organization funded primarily by private grants and government contracts. The organization's initial focus was working with adolescents, mostly youth of color, who were involved with the juvenile justice system--still a central component of the Southwest Key's work today. Dr. Sanchez and his team pioneered and replicated "alternatives to incarceration" programs for youth based on their belief that young people are best served in their own communities with the involvement of their families.
In the 1990s, Southwest Key opened shelters for unaccompanied minors: immigrant children who come to this country without a parent or guardian in search of their families and a better life. These programs were created to reunify immigrant children with their families while providing shelter and services in a nurturing and therapeutic environment. Southwest Key is the largest provider of shelter services to unaccompanied minors in the United States and has won numerous awards for leadership in this area.
The majority of their operations are in Texas and Georgia, but they do operate two facilities in California, and stepped up when they were needed to help alleviate the kids' distress.
Evidently Grassley and the kids over at Fox would rather see those children in solitary jail cells with gruel shoved through the bars twice a day.
Or better yet, a completely blown-up scandal.
Because screw those people who want to make kids' lives bearable.
