Catholic Charities agencies across U.S. continue to be affected by funding freeze
A migrant woman prays in front of an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at a migrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, run by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. / Credit: Peter Pinedo/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 27, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
More local Catholic Charities agencies across the country have been forced this week to lay off employees and shut down programs as a result of the federal aid funding freeze enacted last month by the Trump administration.
Catholic Charities in Florida, Texas, and Kansas spoke out this week about how the funding freeze has impacted both program-specific and agency-wide efforts.
Since President Donald Trump issued a directive halting all foreign aid for a 90-day review, federal funding has been blocked for Catholic Charities programs across the U.S., affecting migrant and refugee service programs especially.
*Texas Catholic Charities announces closure of refugee program*
Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle announced Monday it had made the decision “with a heavy heart” that it would indefinitely suspend its Refugee Resettlement Program.
“Catholic Charities has proudly helped resettle refugees legally authorized to settle here by the U.S. State Department since the mid-’70s,” the organization stated in a press release, according to local news reports. “We offer our sincerest gratitude to the organizations and individuals who have partnered with us to provide this ministry over the past 50 years.”
“We ask our community partners to assist our team and our clients during this difficult time of transition,” the organization added, further noting that it would be moving the program’s staff into other departments within the agency.
*Catholic Charities Jacksonville lays off 26 *
Similarly, Catholic Charities Jacksonville said on Wednesday it had laid off 26 employees of the Florida agency’s refugee program after the funding freeze resulted in its office not receiving reimbursement for services it had already provided in November, according to a local report.
The agency was supposed to receive over $600,000 in federal funding for the program.
The agency’s chief executive officer, Anita Hassell, stated in the report that the organization was forced to let employees go without severance following the executive order.
Now, the Catholic Charities agency is seeking to compensate for the funding freeze by appealing to donors.
“What we have done for each of the programs that we have [is] we have left someone who will be able to pick [up] the loose ends, and we have been appealing to our donors and talking to foundations to see if we can receive money for direct assistance so we can continue providing them with what they need,” Hassel stated in the report.
*Catholic Charities in Kansas issues ‘urgent call for support’ *
Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas issued an “urgent call for support” after the federal government blocked reimbursements it was contracted to receive for its migrant relief program, resulting in an agency-wide financial crisis.
“In recent weeks, our community and nation have faced unprecedented challenges due to new executive orders impacting the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and foreign aid,” Executive Director Debbie Snapp stated in a letter addressed to supporters of the organization. “The freezing of crucial funds poses a critical threat to Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas and our ability to continue serving those in need.”
Snapp told CNA in an interview that the agency had expected to receive close to $500,000 in reimbursements from both organizations combined for December and January.
“I find it really disappointing because we have had really good partnerships with our federal funding partners,” she said. “That whole idea of a public-private partnership has worked really well in our communities.”
Snapp explained that the small agency in southwest Kansas runs “pretty tight margins.” So when funding for its migrant program was blocked, the agency was forced to use other undesignated funds, as well as donor funds, to pay its bills.
As a result, Snapp said, operations across the agency are affected: “The things that we would do, like emergency assistance, some rental assistance, paying utility bills, we’re not able to do that for anybody in the community right now.”
“I had a gentleman that was in my office last Tuesday,” she recalled. “He just completed a treatment program, and he needed a halfway house. He had a small rent payment to make at the halfway house.”
“We had to tell him no because we don’t have the funds to pay that because we’re just trying to pay the bills that we have every month,” she said. The agency is now scrambling to come up with ways to provide rental aid as the first of the month approaches.
While the agency anticipated it would have to make changes to the services it would provide for migrants under the Trump administration, Snapp said the agency was not prepared for an abrupt freeze, having received roughly 70 migrants in the 30 days leading up to the inauguration.
“We had been provided some assurances that we were going to have administrative funding for the rest of the fiscal year to the end of September so that we would be able to wind down those programs and meet our obligations, particularly to the new arrivals that just came the 30 days before the freeze happened,” she stated.
According to Snapp, the agency plans to continue providing migrant services, including job assistance and English language classes, “because we are hopeful that if the funding freeze is ended and we have those funds that we’re still able to provide people with services.” In the past year, she said, the agency has served approximately 1,500 people.
As CNA reported last week, local Catholic Charities agencies in Dallas; Syracuse, New York; and Santa Rosa, California, were also forced to lay off employees and scale back program operations on account of the freeze.