Southwest Key Programs, the countries largest non-profit that shelters migrant children has had to evacuate twice in the last two weeks due to bomb threats.
Not only has Southwest Key Programs, a Texas non-profit had to evacuate due to the threats, but their own employees have faced harassment as well.
Jeff Eller, the spokesman for the non-profit, told Fox News that the employees have been harassed by those that are against border control, and have been both followed home and harassed via telephone.
Even though no bombs have been found following the threats, the event has caused mass chaos in their headquarters in Austin, Texas.
“The security threat from the outside is something we have to take seriously right now,” Eller said. “We have people taking pictures of employees’ license plates [in parking lots], following them and calling them at home [to threaten them].”
In recent weeks the harassment has increased as people across the country have been up-in-arms with the treatment of families at the border.
More than 2,000 children have been separated from their parents due to a law that prohibits children from being kept in detention centers with their parents after being arrested for being here illegally.
600 of the 2,000 children that have been separated from their parents are at Southwest Key facilities around the United States.
Even though the nonprofit has been helping the children and families, they have been targeted by people all across the country.
Not only have they received bomb threats, and personal harassment, but they’ve also had cyber attacks, with their website unable to handle all of the traffic.
Eller stated that “the emotional stress is pretty high” amongst the employees, stating that they’ve never had this type of attention before.
“We’re being exposed, 50 members of Congress have toured our site — we like that, we think it’s a good thing,” he said. “The media coverage has been something that we haven’t been exposed to.”
Juan Sanchez, the CEO, and founder of Southwest Key has also faced countless personal attacks in recent weeks.
He has been criticized for allowing the nonprofit to take around $1 billion in federal contracts, which primarily goes towards detaining the children at the facility. Due to these high contracts, Sachez’s personal earnings have also increased dramatically.
Fox News asked Eller if Sanchez had received threats, to which he would not comment saying, “we don’t talk about security.”
The facilities have also been painted in a dramatically different way than what some former employees say is inaccurate.
One employee who spoke out was Teo Tijerina, who worked for Southwest Key from 2013 to 2015.
He noted that the media had portrayed inaccurate depictions of Southwest Key facilities, and were using photos of temporary INS holding facilities, which are completely different than the facilities of long-term housing like Southwest Key.
“They basically look as much as you can make the shelter look like a school. There are no bars, I saw beds, dormitory type beds…I saw children playing in soccer fields,” said Tijerina. “I’ve seen a lot of chatter and a lot of misinformation about the work that Southwest Key does and I thought that it was unfair to the employees, many of them former colleagues of mine.”
Tijernia also added that Southwest Key aided in a variety of services aside from housing migrant children also worked to create schools and juvenile justice programs for underprivileged youth.
This past Thursday, protestors went to Juan Sanchez’s home to protest his immigration shelters. There has been no immediate change to reunite the immigrant families, so until there is a change, then Southwest KEy will stay under contract with the US government.