After an August Philadelphia Inquirer investigation unveiled years of abuse at Devereux facilities and its contract for a center for migrant children, Juntos, members of Philadelphia City Council and 30 other community organizations started a petition to have Philadelphia end its contract with the organization.

The advanced behavioral health nonprofit has been around for 25 years, and is one of the nation’s largest of its kind.

Fifteen miles outside of Philadelphia, one of the institutes it ran for treating youth with intellectual disabilities, mental disorders, and trauma was pinpointed as one of the centers where sexual abuse took place in the sweeping Inquirer investigation 

Leaving out the details, the federal government also granted the same organization a $40.2 million contract in 2019 to house immigrant children separated from their parents at the border. The planned location for that facility is in Devon, PA

The petition started by Juntos currently has 1,500 signatures and counting.

In response to the call for action, Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services and Community Behavioral Health announced on Sept. 24 that it is removing 53 children and youth from Devereux facilities and immediately barring anyone new from being sent to them. 

Devereux itself has since released a statement from its CEO and announced the hiring of former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to conduct and ‘independent safety audit,’ of the organization over the last 25 years in regards to the sexual abuse that was reported. 

It should also be mentioned the statement makes no mention of the child migrant detention center being run by the organization that Juntos and other orgs also put at the center of their plea to the city.