WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The Trump administration has canceled two refugee resettlement contracts with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) amid the bishops’ lawsuit against the administration for halting funding to help the USCCB resettle refugees.
On February 26, the State Department notified the USCCB that two 2025 agreements for refugee resettlement were terminated “immediately” because the “award no longer effectuates agency priorities,” as noted in court filing related to the USCCB lawsuit.
The State Department letters instruct the USCCB to “stop all work on the program[s] and not incur any new costs” after February 27 and to “cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible.”
The canceled programs received two separate grants totaling about $27 million, according to 2024 records, Catholic News Agency reported.
According to the court filing of the lawsuit proceedings that notes the termination letters, the court cannot compel the State Department to take action under the 2025 agreements, because “the parties’ agreements are no longer in force.”
Thus, the USCCB “can claim no harm absent an injunction, as the only relief now available” to the bishops “is money damages should the parties be unable to resolve any disputes through any available administrative channels,” states the court filing.
The USCCB plays an enormous role in refugee resettlement: The USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services is the largest refugee resettlement agency in the world. As part of this program, it has intermediated federal grants to local Catholic Charities and affiliated organizations, sub-allocating the funds to them for the care of unaccompanied alien children (UAC). Catholic NGOs, including the USCCB, received nearly $3 billion in federal funding for immigration-related activities during the Biden years, according to recent reports.
Catholic Charities, in particular, directly manages the day-to-day care for many UACs and has received intense scrutiny for placing children with unvetted sponsors, even after reports emerged that some of these children ended up in forced labor, sex trafficking, or other forms of abuse.
It is also well-known that the organization assists foreign nationals who have broken U.S. immigration laws; for example, there is a Catholic Charities video advising such people of their rights when approached by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
On January 20, Trump signed the executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” which stipulated the removal of foreign nations in violation of immigration laws and the review of funds to NGOs that support or provide services to illegal aliens.
