Protesters square off on border policy,
Nonprofit Southwest Key’s fans, foes clash over immigrant kids.
Protesters and counterprotesters faced off Thursday outside the headquarters of the Austin nonprofit Southwest Key, clashing over the organization’s operation of facilities for immigrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Protesters yelled that Southwest Key’s leaders are getting rich by running “baby jails.” Supporters of the nonprofit responded that they didn’t set — or support — President Donald Trump’s policy of separating children from their parents but are trying to shelter children who might otherwise be in worse facilities.
Members of LULAC, the nation’s largest Hispanic organization, stood on both sides. Representatives of LULAC District 7 helped lead the protest, with signs that read “Zero Tolerance for Baby Jails.” Members of LULAC District 12 backed Southwest Key, with signs reading “Let’s Talk” and “SWK Proud.”
The showdown illustrated the divide about how to respond to the since-abandoned policy of separating children at the border, as the movement to reunite them with parents goes on sluggishly. Austin-based Southwest Key operates 16 shelters in Texas for immigrant children. Its federal contracts were signed to house children coming over the border unaccompanied and predate the child separations, CEO Juan Sanchez said.
But the organization has caught flak for keeping its contracts in place and going along with housing children taken forcefully from their parents. The group’s leaders publicly opposed the child separation policy only after Trump ended it last month.
“No child should be imprisoned or detained,” said Cynthia Valadez, a member of LULAC District 7. “We can go back to what was done — Catholic Charities used to adopt the families and take them to the administrative hearings.” Sanchez scoffed at that idea. “‘The nuns should be raising these children.’ Well, maybe they
should, but it’s not going to happen,” he said. “Give me something practical, that’s doable . ... What do you propose to do with all the kids we have? Put them on the streets?”
Sanchez and his supporters brought water for the protesters and called for them to sit down and talk, but the protesters shouted over them, yelling, “End child detention.”
Protesters called for local governments, including Austin and Travis County, to end contracts with Southwest Key. Travis County currently has seven contracts with Southwest Key, that extend through 2022, for services ranging from juvenile supervision and mentoring to family therapy and alternative education.
The city of Austin has one contract with Southwest Key to sponsor three different performing arts productions: Group Piece Frontera Fest Long Fringe, Hip Hop Theater Explosion and Echo of the Refugee, city staffers said. The city has already paid most of the $15,000 allocated to Southwest Key, which holds part of a $2.6 million contract for cultural services from multiple agencies.
At times Thursday’s protest devolved into an argument over charter schools. Southwest Key supporter Angelica Faz brushed off the protesters as being merely opponents of charter schools, which Southwest Key also operates. Indeed, Valadez used a bullhorn to accuse Sanchez of “privatizing education, just like he privatized prisons.”
At moments, the debates converged.
“Unfortunately, AISD has a bad history of not teach- ing people, and maybe that’s why they don’t know the difference between a detention center and a shelter,” Faz said as a protester shouted “shame” over her.