(The Center Square) – A bipartisan bill to strengthen requirements for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Texas passed the Texas House and is awaiting a hearing in the Texas Senate.
HB 3120, filed by state Rep. Stan Kitzman, R-Bellville, nearly unanimously passed the Texas House by a vote of 143-2 and was sent to the Texas Senate Local Government Committee. It has yet to be scheduled for a hearing with a few weeks left in the legislative session.
State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, filed companion legislation, SB 2396, and also picked up Kitzman’s bill after it was voted out of the House.
HB 3120 establishes protections for children housed in federal- and state-funded facilities in Texas, including “unaccompanied alien children” (UACs) illegally brought into the country.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for temporarily housing UACs. Its Office of Refugee Resettlement contracts with NGOs operating facilities in Texas to house them. The greatest number of UACs have been sent to Texas; the greatest number of NGO-operated facilities housing UACs are also in Texas, The Center Square first reported.
“Unfortunately, many of these facilities remain shrouded in longstanding allegations of abuse, neglect, failures to adhere to federal agency guidelines, and a disturbing lack of communication with local and state officials,” the bill analysis states.
Currently, no state regulatory oversight of NGO-operated facilities housing UACs in Texas exists. As the border crisis escalated under the Biden administration, local officials began sounding the alarm and Alliance for a Safe Texas published a report detailing complaints. Its founder, Sheena Rodriguez, testified before Congress about allegations and criminal complaints of abuse occurring at facilities in Texas for over a decade, The Center Square reported. Despite numerous congressional hearings and investigations led by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, Congress failed to stop abuse from happening and kept funding the UAC program and NGOs housing UACs. Grassley brought criminal complaints to the FBI resulting in the Biden administration’s DOJ bringing criminal charges against one NGO, Southwest Key. Under the Trump administration, Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped the charges and HHS announced it was no longer placing UACs with Southwest Key. The NGO still operates in Texas. It remains unclear if any alleged NGO child abusers will be brought to justice.
With inconsistent federal policies and enforcement, establishing state regulatory oversight is necessary, especially with local authorities continuing to raise concerns about community safety, Kitzman argues.
His bill would require facility operators to obtain a criminal history record from the Department of Public Safety for employees, contractors, and volunteers. It would amend state government code for residential child detention facilities, including private facilities, that contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, HHS and other federal agencies and provide 24-hour custody or care to UACs or refugee children.
It also would require the facilities to enter into a memorandum of understanding with local governments in the counties in which they operate and report to them illnesses at their facilities, methods for preventing illnesses, an emergency evacuation plan, quarterly compliance and safety inspection reports, monthly facility occupancy records; as well as quarterly incident reports to local law enforcement. Failure to comply would result in loss of state funds until a state audit is conducted, according to the bill language.
Rodriguez, who has advocated for state oversight of NGO facilities for years, met with local residents in multiple counties who said they were blindsided by facilities housing hundreds of UACs next to local schools, reports of increased crime, concerns about the spread of communicable diseases, facility operators refusing to disclose information to them, and the state having no knowledge about who was being housed, for how long, or where they went after they left. HHS failures included not keeping track of UACs sent to these facilities, multiple federal investigations found, The Center Square reported.
Because the same NGOs operating facilities housing UACs are often contracted to care for American foster care children, Rodriguez argues safety requirements must be in place.
After years of Congress failing to act and the Trump administration dropping criminal charges against Southwest Key, “Texas can’t rely on the federal government to ensure the safety of children in Texas. This legislation is essential to protect children being housed in facilities in the state,” Rodriguez told The Center Square. “Is it too much to ask for the state to require transparency in response to requests made by local governments – which they’ve requested for years? Is it too much to ask to require that state criminal background checks be performed on employees working at facilities in Texas who have contact with vulnerable children? The question in the House hearing was, ‘Why wasn’t this done before?’ We have the opportunity to do that now.
“Rep. Kitzman received overwhelming bipartisan support, including from all House Democrats. Few bills receive nearly unanimous support in the Texas House. We are calling on the Texas Senate to pass the bill.”
In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott called on the Biden administration to shut down several facilities in Texas arguing it was presiding over the abuse of children, The Center Square reported.
“The Texas legislature can hand him a bill to ensure that doesn’t happen again,” Rodriguez said.
