A 15-year-old boy detained at a Texas center for migrant children was reported missing Sunday and was said to have fled the facility at some point Saturday.
The Brownsville Police Department confirmed the boy had run away from the Southwest Key Casa Padre center.
Sources who spoke to the teenager reported that he fled to Mexico and a man he called his father was sending him money in order to return to Honduras, according to NBC News.
Police said search team efforts to locate the boy – who had been at the center for more than a month – were unsuccessful.
Dignitaries take a tour of Southwest Key Programs Casa Padre, a U.S. immigration facility in Brownsville, Texas, Monday, June 18, 2018, where children are detained. A teenage boy ran away from Casa Padra on Saturday
Police spokesman J.J. Trevino (seen in a file photo) announced the 15-year-old boy had gone missing from the Brownsville center and efforts to locate him were unsuccessful
A spokesperson for Southwest Key said employees at the center are not permitted to keep children there against their will.
‘As a licensed child care center, if a child attempts to leave any of our facilities, we cannot restrain them,’ the statement said, according to NBC News.
‘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.’
Last week, Casa Padre was listed among more than a dozen detention shelters that were accused of misconduct and violations of care standards.
Southwest Key Programs of Texas operates the converted Walmart supermarket, Casa Padre, which was featured by much of the US media for holding about 1,500 immigrant children under the Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy.
The report said Texas inspectors found 246 violations at the company’s other facilities, including shampoo dispensers filled with hand sanitizer.
Casa Padre, an immigrant shelter for unaccompanied minors, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., is seen in this photo provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, June 14, 2018
Children inside Casa Padre, an immigrant shelter for unaccompanied minors, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., are seen in this June 14 photo
Occupants at Casa Padre, an immigrant shelter for unaccompanied minors, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., are seen in this photo provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, June 14, 2018
In a statement, the company said deficiencies were found in less than one percent of the standards for which it is evaluated.
‘We take each of the deficiencies seriously by self-reporting to invite external investigations, as well as performing our own internal investigations,’ the company said.
‘When called for, staff have been terminated or retrained as we continue to strive for excellence in the services we provide to the children entrusted to our care.’
Another Texas-based company, International Educational Services, was one of the two shelter operators whose ORR contracts were not renewed.
It had been cited with more than 100 deficiencies at nine facilities, including ‘inappropriate sexual contact between staff and children, harsh punishment and lapses in medical care,’ the report said.