Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 3, 2025 / 18:10 pm (CNA).
The Catholic Church’s service to migrants and refugees has come under scrutiny after Vice President JD Vance criticized the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in a televised interview as the administration continues to crack down on illegal immigration.
“I think that the [USCCB] needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million [from the federal government] to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns or are they actually worried about their bottom line?” Vance asked rhetorically in a Jan. 26 interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Without directly referencing Vance, the USCCB issued a statement that same day defending its partnership with the federal government on resettling refugees, noting that the people they serve through the refugee resettlement program are “vetted and approved … by the federal government while outside of the United States.”
“In our agreements with the government, the USCCB receives funds to do this work; however, these funds are not sufficient to cover the entire cost of these programs,” the statement read. “Nonetheless, this remains a work of mercy and ministry of the Church.”
In light of this debate, here’s an explainer to shed light on the USCCB’s efforts to serve migrants and its partnership with the federal government.
How much taxpayer money does the USCCB receive?
In recent years, the USCCB has received more than $100 million annually from the federal government to support migration and refugee services.
A large portion of funding comes from grants through the federal U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) to help resettle refugees who have been vetted by the federal government. This is the program the bishops referenced in their statement.
The USCCB also gets federal funding through other programs. These include the Refugee and Entrant Assistance program, which is meant to support migrants and help them attain self-sufficiency. The bishops’ conference also receives federal money from the Unaccompanied Alien Children program, which is meant to support migrant children who enter the United States without a parent or guardian or are separated from their parents or guardians.
The amount of money the USCCB receives fluctuates from year to year and from administration to administration, but the conference has partnered with the federal government on the issue for four and a half decades.
According to the USCCB’s audited financial statements, federal funding covered more than 95% of what the conference spent on refugee and migrant programs in recent years. The USCCB has spent slightly more on these services than what is covered by federal funding, according to the financial statements.
In 2023, the most recent year reported, the USCCB spent more than $134.2 million on these services with federal grants covering more than $129.6 million of the spending. In 2022, the USCCB spent nearly $127.4 million after getting nearly $123 million from the government.
Federal funding in those two years was much higher than it was in President Joe Biden’s first year in office and throughout most of President Donald Trump’s first term.
The USCCB received just over $67.5 million in federal funds in 2021, about $47.8 million in 2020, slightly more than $52.7 million in 2019, and a little under $48.5 million in 2018. Each year, the conference spent about $5 million more than what was covered by the grants. During Trump’s first year in 2017, the grant funding was higher — at just over $72.3 million — and the USCCB spending on these services was more than $82.2 million.
During President Barack Obama’s tenure, federal grant funding for the USCCB’s programs that support refugees and migrants fluctuated from below $70 million to above $95 million.
Where does the money go?
The USCCB directs the bulk of its federal grant funding to affiliate organizations that provide migration and refugee services, such as Catholic Charities.
According to the USCCB Committee on Migration, the Catholic refugee resettlement network includes more than 65 affiliate offices throughout the United States. The bishops self-report that the USCCB and its Migration and Refugee Services help resettle about 18% of refugees who enter the country every year.
Numerous affiliates are located near the border with Mexico, where many people seeking legal refugee status cross into the United States. The committee’s website states, however, “there is no evidence or research to support the claim that … services provided by Catholic organizations incentivize unlawful migration.”
Some of the services provided through the funding include food, clothing, shelter, employment, and assistance in assimilating to their new community, including lessons in English as a second language. Some organizations also offer legal services to migrants to provide free assistance with legal issues related to immigration status and travel for refugees accepted into USRAP.
Apart from refugee resettlement, the USCCB also uses federal grants to assist unaccompanied refugee minors through work with its affiliates. This includes foster care services for migrant children and family reunification programs that work to reunite children who are separated from their families during migration.
The USCCB also operates several programs with the help of its affiliates that are intended to combat the human trafficking of migrants, which includes initiatives focused on preventing forced labor and sexual exploitation.
Although a significant portion of this work is supported by federal grants, the committee website emphasizes the USCCB “does not profit from its participation” in these programs, noting that the conference spends more money on these initiatives than it receives from the government. Both the USCCB and Catholic Charities are nonprofit organizations.
Policy disputes and federal funding
Enhancing border security and deporting immigrants who entered the country illegally are two of the top issues on which the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump focused his campaign and presidency.
Officials in the new administration have not only focused on changing federal immigration policy but have also criticized nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide migrant services, which include Catholic nonprofits affiliated with the USCCB.
One of Trump’s first-day executive orders was to suspend refugee admission through USRAP. The following week, the White House ordered the heads of federal departments and agencies to halt federal funding to NGOs that could be implicated by the executive orders.
Although it is still unclear to what extent this will affect funding for Catholic NGOs, Catholic Charities USA President and CEO Kerry Alys Robinson issued a statement that urged the president to reconsider the freeze.
“The millions of Americans who rely on this life-giving support will suffer due to the unprecedented effort to freeze federal aid supporting these programs,” Robinson said. “The people who will lose access to crucial care are our neighbors and family members. They live in every corner of the country and represent all races, religions, and political affiliations.”
Patrick Raglow, the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, told “EWTN News In Depth” on Friday that “our approach is to be present to those that come our way, so we are [supportive of] the individual that finds their way to Catholic Charities.”
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The Catholic Church has become an agent of the Federal Government and has become as corrupt as the government. As long as there is even one contract between the Catholic Church and the Feds the Catholic Church CANNOT be holy. All government contracts with the Church must end TODAY.
And Catholic Charities in Milwaukee has just been caught on secret recording telling illegal immigrants how to evade the immigration service. I do not believe one word of this CNS effort to whitewash the USCCB’s trafficking in illegal immigrants in exchange for cash. This is not charity. This is a business, and an illegal one. I hope the Trump administration goes after them with the full force of law.
The USCCB narrative floats very nicely, since it is not weighed down by facts.
A. The USCCB insists that the apparently illegal immigrants “are vetted and approved by the federal government while outside the United States.” That statement has ZERO credibility, as the example cited by VP Vance just showed.
B. The USCCB says they have 65 offices around the US doing this work of resettling illegal immigrants. Well, perhaps CNA and USCCB might state how many employees it has in these “65 offices” and how much of the “federal funds” for illegal immigrants is siphoned off to fund the permanent payroll of the USCCB’s illegal immigration program?
This has all the credibility of the USCCB’s monsignor (was his name Burrelle?) who they put in charge of “sex abuse” matters, who turned out to be using GRNDR or some other such homosexual hookup app, much to the “surprise” of everyone at USCCB I am sure.
Statements from the USCCB have the very same accreditation that they carried when they issued “The McCarrick Doctrine of the Eucharist,” shamelessly lying to everyone’s face.
“The USCCB issued a statement defending its partnership with the federal government on resettling refugees, noting that the people they serve through the refugee resettlement program are vetted and approved … by the federal government while outside of the United States” (CNA).
Our issue as Catholics is Justice. Objections to comments in support of a degree of leniency in favor of assistance to those who prior to crossing the border were vetted by the US Govt and offered refugee status upon arrival – objections that insist justice is owed the US taxpayer not the migrant family. Our bishops are addressing the reality they’re faced with, persons in dire need previously vetted and assured support. Do we as a Nation have responsibility? Is there a reasonable basis for charity, or is compassion a non issue? Are we completely free of responsibility? Should we deny funds intended to protect migrant children from sexual exploitation? What do we tell Christ at Judgement when he says, When I was helpless and without means you refused me all assistance, warmth and shelter, kindness? You went so far as to confiscate what was already legally given.
Father, the narrative that most of the migrants are simply innocent doves exploited by ruthless cartels, greedy NGOs, rapacious businesses and cold governments is false. At some level, the adults, anyway, know what they’re doing. Certainly, that ought to be the default position in regards to many single men of military age who have made up the bulk of the influx. If they’re being used, they’re happy to be used and to go along with the lies that they have been vetted, that they are fleeing persecution, etc.
The situation is analogous to the subprime lending crisis in that respect. The Wall Street banks, the politicians and the regulators may have been the main villains, but the borrowers who took out loans they knew they could never repay had cupability.
Most of my ire is directed to the people who created this mess (the politicians, media, the charities and so forth). However, I owe the migrants nothing. They must be sent back.
Tony my appeal is limited to hardship cases that have some justification for leniency. Otherwise I’m in complete agreement that the majority of migrants should be deported to their nation of origin.
Catholic Relief Services received $4.6 billion from the federal government’s USAID, according to Forbes.
Also note: USAID disbursed $16 billion to Population Services International (PSI) in 2023, according to Axios. Wikipedia writes: PSI “began as an international not-for-profit provider of contraception and safe abortion services,….” Wikipedia also notes that the founders of PSI founded “Adam and Eve,” a retail/mail order business selling “condoms and sex aids”…”in order to use the profits to finance family-planning programs in developing countries.”
For the sake of its own name and reputation, Catholic Relief Services would do best to divest itself from ANY TYPE OF association with such groups as PSI. If DOGE doesn’t do it first for them.
Form the CRS website:
November 14, 2024
CRS Welcomes New and Returning Board Members
Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala elected to serve three-year term for CRS beginning January 2025.
NOTE: The Washington Post tells of the Bishop’s three unsuccessful attempts to illegally enter the US from El Salvador. “He finally arrived in California in 1990, having been smuggled in the trunk of a car with his brother over the border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/24/bishop-menjivar-undocumented-el-salvador-catholic/
Bishop Menjivar currently serves as auxiliary bishop in the Washington DC archdiocese, (McElroy’s). He also serves on the National Board of CRS as well as Catholic Charities of Maryland.
1st, one must determine how many of the millions of people that came across the open border under Biden are actually “refugees ” vs just coming across ( illegally) to get all the freebies.
Where are the Bishops’ tears when it comes to taking care of the rather large homeless population in every city, town and village here in America? Too messy and complicated a problem?