IES - S-WEST KEY SALARIES SIMILAR, BUT S-WEST KEY LARGER

After we published the salary schedules for now-defunct International Educational Services Inc. operated by Dr. Ruben Gallegos to provide board and education services to unaccompanied minors apprehended by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, we were asked whether Dr. Juan Sanchez's Southwest Key was any different.                                                                                                                                          Fair enough, we said, so we looked up their latest IRS report for the non-profit (2016). Of course, Southwest Key is a larger organization with facilities in seven states and gets more income from federal grants and contributions. Compared to IES's $72,030,413, Southwest Key lists assets of nearly 10 times as much at $721,806,851.

Sanchez and one other officer, CFO Melody Chung, draw more than $500,000 annually to operate Southwest Key programs (Sanchez $786,622, and Chung $545,316). With IES withdrawing from the provision of these services by March 31, Southwest Key will probably grow even more as a result.

Both IES and Southwest Key are paid by the by the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement to shelter unaccompanied children from Mexico and Central America who cross into the United States at the Texas border are evaluated by the U.S. Border Patrol and placed temporarily at detention centers. 

If possible, the children are reunited with families already in the United States. If a relative cannot be found, the child is transported from the border to an emergency shelter managed by a private company or nonprofit organization like IES and Southwest Key. Federal Judge Andrew Hanen once likened the federal government's resettlement program to what coyotes do illegally. Obviously, coyotes don;t get paid like this.

Southwest Key was founded by Sanchez – a former migrant worker from Brownsville – in 1987 from a basement in San Antonio. It now operates 87 different programs in seven states (Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New York, Texas and Wisconsin). I.E.S., on the other hand, has eight shelters all located in the Rio Grande Valley.

Sanchez's Southwest Key also moved to address youth justice alternatives, immigrant children's shelters, and education. Southwest Key also offers programming in adult education, community building and workforce development.

It was recently ranked #4 among the Top 25 Hispanic Nonprofits in America by Hispanic Business Magazine.