The Trump administration’s freeze in funding for resettlement of refugees leaves the US bishops’ conference ‘unable to sustain its work,’ USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio said.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) -- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for halting funding to resettle refugees, accusing the administration of violating federal law and saying that the freeze cripples the USCCB's resettlement efforts.
“The conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status,” USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio said.
According to the bishops' lawsuit, the USCCB's Migration and Refugee Services agency "has already been forced to initiate layoffs for fifty employees,” which is more than half of its refugee resettlement staff.
"All of those employees relied on continued funding under USCCB’s cooperative agreements," the lawsuit said, adding that the funding freeze has led some of the conference's partner organizations to lay off staff as well.
READ: Archbishop Viganò: US bishops attack Trump after losing government cash
The Department of State had notified the USCCB on January 24 of a pause in funding for refugee resettlement as the Trump administration reviews foreign aid spending. The review comes amid revelations that the Biden administration directed hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer funding to woke, pro-LGBT, and pro-abortion causes through foreign aid programs.
“USCCB spends more on refugee resettlement each year than it receives in funding from the federal government, but it cannot sustain its programs without the millions in federal funding that provide the foundation of this private-public partnership,” the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, states.
The USCCB has 6,758 refugees assigned to it by the government who are within their 90-day resettlement period, according to the complaint, and the conference is still waiting for $13 million in reimbursements for expenses incurred before January 24.
“As a direct result of the suspension, USCCB has millions of dollars in pending, unpaid reimbursements for services already rendered to refugees and is accruing millions more each week – with no indication that any future reimbursements will be paid or that the program will ever resume,” the bishops' lawsuit says.
It adds that “the uncertainty now surrounding the funding and USCCB’s partnership with the government will cause long-term, potentially catastrophic consequences to USCCB’s programs, as the substantial financial risk of partnering with the government to provide these services is too high if reimbursements can be arbitrarily and unlawfully suspended.”
The USCCB has faced growing criticism, including from Catholics, for its involvement in the Biden administration's open border policies, which have resulted in surging crime, including human and drug trafficking. Catholic NGOs, including the USCCB, received nearly $3 billion in federal funding for immigration-related activities during the Biden years, according to recent reports.
The USCCB and Catholic Charities, in particular, received $449 million from the U.S. government to shelter and transport unaccompanied immigrant children under the Biden administration, which lost track of around 300,000 children, putting them at risk of trafficking and exploitation.
