BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Juan Sanchez, the founder of Southwest Key Programs, informed News Center 23 that over 900 employees have been let go from Brownsville, Harlingen and San Benito, and over 1,500 nationwide.
“When we started hiring people, we had over 3,000 kids that we were serving at the time,” Sanchez said in an interview with News Center 23’s Marlane Rodriguez.
“The government needed all these [shelter] beds,” Sanchez said referring to unaccompanied minors.
In fiscal year 2016, total apprehensions of undocumented immigrants by the border patrol on our southwest border, between ports of entry, was 408,870.
“[The government] asked us to set up… And so we did and in the process of course we advertised and all these people applied for jobs,” he said before a meeting between Southwest Key Programs and laid off employees took place.
He said the Trump Administration could be the cause of all the layoffs.
“There's been this determination by the government ‘that we're going to cut the number of kids that you're serving by 48%’, so as the government has made these cuts across the country, what do we do?” Sanchez said. “They told us you need to terminate folks so we are in the process right now of needing to terminate people.”
Employees walked in and out of the event center with information on what they can do next.
Sanchez said he spoke with the former employees about their benefits, and hopes this will not be the end of the Southwest Key Programs.