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DHS moves to revoke license from child immigrant shelter

Posted at 7:10 AM, Sep 20, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-20 19:43:53-04

The Arizona Department of Health Services is acting to revoke the license for a chain of immigrant children shelters.

RELATED: Read the full letter from DHS to Southwest Key

After Southwest Key shelters missed a Sept. 14 to clear more than 2,000 employees, DHS issued a letter to Southwest Key informing the facility that it would revoke the licenses for all 13 facilities. 

Southwest Key holds immigrant children who have been separated from their families. Its staffers had faced accusations of abusing child detainees. The Tucson location is at 1601 N. Oracle Road.

"... Apparently, providing the department with reassurance that your organization delivered consisted of incongruent spreadsheets, filled with names and dates with no context or ability for the department to interpret this information," the letter stated. "Further, the spreadsheets are grouped by your organizations 'programs' and not by license location, a structure that proves to be useless to the department."

The facility has 30 days to appeal the revocation.

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