Earlier this month, Pope Francis wrote a powerful letter condemning the Trump administration’s demonization of migrants and plans for mass deportation. “I have closely followed the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis wrote to U.S. bishops, adding “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”
This week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) followed up with concrete action, suing the Trump administration over its abrupt halt of mandated funding for the U.S. refugee program, arguing in a lawsuit that the “unlawful” suspension of congressionally-approved funds “violates multiple statutes,” “undermines the Constitution’s separation of powers,” and has left more than 6,700 vetted refugees who were assigned to the group by the federal government without crucial support as they seek to begin new lives in the U.S.
The sudden halt in funding for the decades-old humanitarian program has also forced USCCB to lay off 50 dedicated workers who as part of the Migration & Refugee Services office have assisted in refugee resettlement, Catholic news agency Crux reports.
“For decades, the U.S. government has chosen to admit refugees and outsourced its statutory responsibility to provide those refugees with resettlement assistance to non-profit organizations like USCCB,” the organization states in the lawsuit, which names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other Trump administration officials as defendants. “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.”
During a Thursday press event that was moderated by America’s Voice and featured faith leaders from multiple faith traditions, Bishop Mark Seitz, Bishop of El Paso and chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, called the Trump administration’s actions “a betrayal of our values.”
“They are an attack on our families, and they risk weaponizing the law against the vulnerable,” Bishop Seitz said. “There is no denying that the rhetoric on this issue, the actions that seal the border to the vulnerable, the rolling back of humanitarian aid programs, and the actions that bring us each day closer to realizing the administration’s goal of mass deportations are deeply rooted in intolerance … I choose a different path, people of faith across the country choose a different path.”
Other notable speakers from the call included Mark Hetfield, President of HIAS; Rev. William H. Lamar IV, Metropolitan AME Church; Rev. Gabriel Salguero, The Gathering Place and National Latino Evangelical Coalition; and Jim Simpson, Executive Director of the Center on Faith and Justice. “I think across all faith traditions, but certainly within Judaism and Christianity,” said Simpson, “we are called without exception to treat everyone, who are all made in God’s image, with welcome, care, and protection, and especially the stranger, as this is lifted up in both the Old and the New Testaments.” Read more of their powerful remarks here.
The USCCB “is one of 10 national agencies, most of them faith-based, that serve refugees and that have been sent scrambling since receiving a Jan. 24 State Department letter informing them of an immediate suspension of funding pending a review of foreign-aid programs,” the AP reports. “The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, notes that the resettlement program isn’t even foreign aid. It’s a domestic program to help newly arrived refugees — who arrive legally after being vetted overseas — meet initial needs such as housing and job placement.”
These are essentially investments in our nation: research from Global Refuge shows that refugees contributed more than $269 billion in tax revenue to federal, state, and local entities from 2005 to 2014. “Research also shows that refugees boast high rates of entrepreneurship, outshining even that of other immigrants and U.S.-born citizens.”
But the Trump administration’s freeze of appropriated funds has also stranded vetted refugees who were cleared to travel to the U.S. and reunite with loved ones, national and local faith-based refugee-serving agencies International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), Church World Service (CWS), HIAS, and Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSNW) said in their Feb. 10 lawsuit challenging the suspension of program in its entirety. Among them was an Afghan refugee who was travel-ready when Trump handed down his order.
“When the Taliban took over Afghanistan I was a student at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul. I was a peace activist and advocated for human rights and was evacuated along with other students whose lives were at serious risk,” Ahmed said. “For the past three years, I’ve been waiting for the chance to go to the United States and reunite with my sister and her family. I have not seen her since 2021 and I have never met my youngest niece. I was so excited to join them.”
The lawsuit from IRAP, CWS, HIAS, and LCSNW “argues that the refugee suspension, including its chaotic implementation by federal agencies, is unlawful and violates Congress’ authority to make immigration laws, and that the State Department’s stop-work orders violate basic regulatory requirements.”
Faith leaders from over two dozen Christian and Jewish groups have also sued over the recent Trump directive making houses of worship vulnerable to mass deportation raids, arguing that it is “lowering attendance at worship services” and “infringes on the groups’ religious freedom,” the AP reported on Feb. 12. The faith groups range from “the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism to the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists” and represent millions of Americans.
“Caring for the stranger is a religious obligation for Jews,” Rabbi Hara Person, chief executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and Rev. Sean W. Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, wrote in a Religion News Service op-ed. “For most of Jewish history, Jews have moved from one land to another due to exile, persecution or the hope of a better future for the next generation. Jews came to the United States as immigrants and have supported and welcomed immigrants ever since. Jews have always heeded the commandment repeated 36 times in the Torah: an exhortation to care for the stranger because Jews were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
The Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, which partnered with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law to file the lawsuit, is encouraging people of faith to sign a petition urging the Trump administration to reverse its decision rescinding the “sensitive locations” memo.
Petition 👇People of all faiths and traditions are speaking out to tell Pres Trump and Congress: No immigration raids in houses of worship! Add your voice: www.sensitive-locations.com
— FCNL (@fcnl.bsky.social) 2025-02-13T20:47:26.729Z
Pope Francis’ extraordinary Feb. 10 letter led calls from a wide variety of faith traditions speaking out against and standing up to the Trump administration’s cruel and chaotic immigration and refugee agenda, calling instead for policies that align with broader values and seek to tamp down, instead of inflame, fear and chaos.
“… the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” Pope Francis continued in his letter. “I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
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