WelCom February/March 2025
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has sued the Trump Administration over the suspension of funding of refugee resettlement assistance.
In the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on 18 February, the bishops called this suspension ‘unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees’.
A USCCB spokesperson said the lawsuit urges the Government ‘to uphold its legal and moral obligations’ to refugees and to restore the funding needed to ensure faith-based and community organisations can continue their work with refugees.
The USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services is one of 10 national resettlement agencies that work with the US Refugee Admissions Program, which was established by Congress in 1980, formalising the process by which refugees are legally resettled in the US.
USRAP was suspended through an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on 20 January and is being evaluated to see whether refugee resettlement ‘is in the national interest’.
The State Department issued suspension notices to domestic resettlement agencies, including the USCCB, on 24 January, which has impacted resettlement agencies’ ability to carry out services for refugees.
The USCCB’s president, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the US Archdiocese for the Military Services, said ‘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.’
Chieko Noguchi, USCCB spokesperson, said the lawsuit filed by the USCCB ‘challenges the suspension of the funding for refugee assistance we have run for decades’.
‘Throughout this long-time partnership with the US government, the USCCB has helped nearly a million individuals find safety and build their lives in the United States.
Source: OSV News