The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sued the Trump administration Tuesday over the State Department cutting funding for refugee assistance.
The lawsuit alleges USCCB “faces irreparable damage” due to the loss of funds, with millions of dollars already spent on nearly 7,000 refugees that will no longer be reimbursed following the Jan. 24 refugee funding suspension. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are named as defendants, among others.
“The government’s sudden Refugee Funding Suspension is unlawful,” the lawsuit alleges. “It violates multiple statutes, including the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), and undermines the Constitution’s separation of powers.”
USCCB has been providing “resettlement services” for refugees in conjunction with the federal government since the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980, the lawsuit says. The State Department’s sudden halt of the funds is an expansion of the Trump administration’s efforts to combat the illegal immigration crisis that ignited under former President Joe Biden and cut wasteful and unnecessary foreign aid.
The Biden administration’s border policies allowed for roughly 11 million border encounters from February 2021 through December 2024 and led to hundreds of criminal illegal migrants to enter the U.S. through the southern border. After Trump declared an emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border and enabled officials to utilize military aircraft to conduct deportations, thousands of illegal criminal migrants have been arrested and removed from the U.S.
“[T]he Refugee Funding Suspension is arbitrary and capricious,” the lawsuit reads. “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. 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. Nor did it consider the obvious, less-disruptive alternative of reviewing its outstanding agreements before halting funds to active awardees.”
USCCB claims it has already been forced to fire 50 employees due to the Trump administration’s decision.
On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would be “realigning” its refugee policy to better suit the interests of the nation, suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The president said the decision was made due to the “significant influxes of migrants” who cannot “fully and appropriately assimilate into the United States” and the drain refugee assistance has been on taxpayers.
Trump’s stance on immigration has led the president and Vice President J.D. Vance to frequently clash with Catholic leadership, with Pope Francis calling Trump’s immigration policy a “disgrace.” Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington has stood by the president, stating Catholic teaching does not support an “open border policy.”
USCCB, HHS and the State Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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