EXCLUSIVE — A senior Senate Republican is pushing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to investigate the sexual abuse of unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody following a Justice Department lawsuit against a childcare contractor.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) sent Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, a letter Thursday afternoon in which he asked to convene a hearing to examine how the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement had allowed “despicable acts of abuse” toward children under its care.

“This issue is ripe for oversight,” Cassidy, the top Republican on the committee, wrote in the letter, first obtained by the Washington Examiner. “The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) has primary jurisdiction over ORR and is therefore responsible for ensuring that the administration is doing everything possible to keep unaccompanied children in ORR custody safe from abuse and harassment.”

In mid-July, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against government contractor Southwest Key Programs that alleged a pattern of sexual abuse and harassment against boys and girls in its shelters since 2015.

Southwest Key has a large portfolio of children’s shelters nationwide and is the government’s largest childcare provider for migrant children.

It has received $5.5 billion in taxpayer dollars to oversee 29 federal shelters where children are brought after being apprehended at the southern border.

The accusations mentioned in the DOJ lawsuit are “despicable,” Cassidy said. The DOJ accused Southwest Key employees of inappropriate touching, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for inappropriate relationships, and sexual comments from the children in custody.

Staff also allegedly failed to prevent and detect the abuse and, at times, discouraged children from reporting it to leaders.

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“If this harassment went undetected at its largest grantee for so many years, there are serious questions about the treatment of unaccompanied children at other ORR facilities and what steps ORR is taking to detect and prevent abuse,” Cassidy said. “Furthermore, as I have learned throughout my investigation into ORR, the agency has repeatedly silenced whistleblowers and punished those who have come forward to report abuse.”

Cassidy has asked Sanders to hold a hearing with representatives from HHS and Southwest Key.