HHS ends $11M contract with Catholic Charities to care for migrant children

A Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sub-agency has decided not to renew an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities, a move that will affect efforts to care for migrant children.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) will no longer fund the Catholic Charities shelter run by the Archdiocese of Miami after several years of continuous federal support for the entity. 

The shelter provides housing and care to migrant children who are in the country without a parent or guardian. 

“ORR is closing and consolidating unused facilities as the Trump administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children,” HHS press secretary Emily G. Hilliard said in a statement to The Hill. 

News of the drawback comes amid President Trump’s tensions with the Catholic Church and repeated swipes at Pope Leo XIV for condemning the Iran war.

The religious nonprofit operates the equivalent of a federally funded foster care system with a current daily population of 1,900 unaccompanied minors, according to an HHS official.

Comparatively, it housed 22,000 under the Biden administration.

“The U.S. government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski wrote in a statement for the Miami Herald editorial board.

“The Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country,” he added.

The final decision of nonrenewal was made Feb. 16, per the HHS official.

The local Catholic Charities organization was contacted in March by the federal government about the cancellation, according to Miami Herald.

“Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors has been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months,” Wenski said in his statement to the Herald. 

On Thursday, White House senior deputy press secretary Kush Desai denied that the local Catholic Charities organization was recently informed of the canceled funding. But he said that two Catholic groups were told last year of the Trump administration’s decision not to renew contracts.

“Fake News,” Desai wrote in a post on social platform X, referring to the Miami Herald’s reporting. 

“Last year, 49 charities with federal grants to care for unaccompanied alien children were informed that their grants would not be renewed. Only two of these charities were Catholic groups,” he added.

Desai would not confirm to The Hill if the Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami was one of those groups.

The Archdiocese of Miami did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment but is expected to host a press conference Thursday afternoon. 

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