The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sued President Donald Trump’s administration for halting funding to a refugee resettlement program on Wednesday.
The USCCB filing joins a litany of lawsuits seeking to block Trump from ending funding for various government programs and agencies. The suit relates to the Refugee Act of 1980, under which the USCCB worked in tandem with the U.S. government to resettle over 930,000 refugees, the lawsuit claims.
“For decades, the US 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 lawsuit reads, according to the Catholic Herald.
“But now, after refugees have 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,” it continued.
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Pope Francis and various Catholic groups have criticized President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. (TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images/ Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration issued a suspension letter for the program soon after Trump entered office, though the USCCB argues the letter made clear that the department would reimburse the USCCB for its work up to Jan. 24.
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The USCCB lawsuit argues both that it has not received reimbursement up to Jan. 24, and that it is illegal for the Trump administration to unilaterally cut off congressionally approved funding.
The conference noted that the funding freeze has forced them to begin off-rolling 50 of its employees focused on refugee resettlement.
USAID is one of many federal agencies facing scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration. (Getty Images)
The lawsuit comes days after a federal judge issued an order compelling the Trump administration to lift its three-week funding freeze on U.S. foreign aid last week.
Judge Amir Ali noted in his ruling that the Trump administration argued it had to shut down funding for the thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development programs abroad to conduct a thorough review of each program and whether it should be eliminated.
Elon Musk is leading Trump’s cost-cutting efforts in the federal government. (AP Images)
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But the judge said that Trump officials failed to explain why a “blanket suspension” of foreign aid programs was necessary before the programs were more thoroughly reviewed.