Staff at the Casa Padre facility are not allowed to restrain children if they decide to leave, the source said
Eller, the Southwest Key Programs spokesman, said the same thing. “As a licensed child care center, if a child attempts to leave any of our facilities, we cannot restrain them,” he said. “We are not a detention center. We talk to them and try to get them to stay. If they leave the property, we call law enforcement.”
As soon as children walk across the care facility property line, by law they become a missing child under the jurisdiction of the local police department, the source said. The source did not know if the children in the care facility are aware they can leave the facility at any time. When a child does leave, the Office of Refugee Resettlement is notified.
Over 19,000 children have been cared for by Southwest Key Programs this fiscal year and fewer than 50 children have chosen to leave the care centers alone, the source said.
Juan Sanchez, the founder and president of Southwest Key Programs, said children at the shelter are able to call their families. Southwest Key Programs, as part of its intake process, works to find out how to get in touch with family members, Sanchez said. Parents held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities may not have phone access or be reachable, he acknowledged, but he said that “a majority of separated children have other family here they can call.”
