Catholic bishops argue that Trump’s funding freeze hurting efforts to help refugees

Multiple funding freezes initiated by the Trump administration prompted another legal challenge this week, this time in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

At issue is funding from the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration that was approved by Congress. Those funds support the bishops’ effort to help settle thousands of refugees who legally enter the country.

“For decades, the U.S. government has chosen to admit refugees and outsourced its statutory responsibility to provide those refugees with resettlement assistance to nonprofit organizations like USCCB,” the lawsuit states. “But now, after refugees have already arrived and been placed in USCCB’s care, the government is attempting to pull the rug out from under USCCB’s programs by halting funding.”

According to the suit, the bishops have worked under this arrangement since 1965. The civil nonprofit organization does so not because the refugees are Catholic (many are not), “but because we are Catholic,” Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, who formerly served as the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, said in the complaint. The conference of bishops is among the nation’s largest organizations helping to settle refugees.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed to serve in the District of Columbia by Trump, denied the motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that had earlier been filed by attorneys representing the bishops.

McFadden set a hearing to consider a preliminary injunction to restore the funding at a hearing scheduled for Friday, according to court records.

According to the complaint, the nonprofit is one of many that works with Congress to help as many as 65,000 persons a year find food, shelter, job training, English-language education so the refugees can integrate as quickly as possible.

It noted that many of those refugees came from places where they faced danger or persecution.

The “USCCB currently serves approximately 17% of refugees being resettled in the United States. And since 1980, USCCB has provided refugee-resettlement services to more than 930,000 refugees,” the complaint states.

“In providing this assistance, USCCB has consistently devoted more resources than it receives in related federal funding,” the suit continued. “In 2023, for example, USCCB paid $4 million more on its refugee-resettlement and related programs than it received from the federal government.”

Those dollars trickle down throughout local diocese, including in Spokane. Efforts to reach Bishop Thomas Daly were not immediately successful.

Rob McCann, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington, said on Friday that he could not comment without Daly’s approval.

According to the lawsuit, Congress appropriated $3.9 billion to the U.S. State Department in 2024 for, among other things, “migration and refugee assistance.” But that funding was abruptly halted Jan. 24.

“For the first time in forty-five years, and without warning, the government has cut off funding to USCCB for the essential services USCCB provides to government-approved refugees, including refugees already placed with USCCB and its subrecipients,” the suit states. “In doing so, the government entirely failed to consider and address the obvious and catastrophic consequences that an immediate funding suspension would impose on USCCB, its subrecipients, and individual refugees – let alone those parties’ significant, reasonable reliance interests in continued funding.”

The bishops also noted that it has had to respond to the funding freeze with layoffs and it cannot meet financial obligations to other organizations.

“The consequences of the Refugee Funding Suspension have been predictably devastating for USCCB and the refugees it supports. At the time of the suspension, there were more than 6,700 refugees assigned to USCCB by the government that were still within their 90-day transition period,” the suit states. “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.”

In addition to layoffs, those refugees who were receiving care, have been left in limbo.

“Refugees who have already entered the United States may soon be cut off from support, contravening the statutorily expressed will of Congress and making it more difficult for them to establish themselves as productive members of society,” the suit states.

In a motion filed Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Carilli asked the judge to deny the bishops’ request, arguing that the State Department acted within the law and had no duty to give notice to the bishops before halting the funding.

The bishop’s organization “fails to establish irreparable harm because its alleged harms are monetary,” Carilli wrote. “Third, the balance of harms and the public interest weigh in favor of the President’s ability to implement his agenda consistent with his constitutional and statutory authorities.”

The lawsuit follows statements last month by Vice President JD Vance who suggested that the bishops’ organization wanted the funding to continue to boost their coffers.

According to the Washington Post, Vance said the bishops need to “look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?”

In response, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York City, who has given prayers at both of Donald Trump’s inaugurations, said of Vance’s comments: “That’s just scurrilous. It’s very nasty.”