The Trump administration has reportedly canceled an $11 million contract with the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, which offers shelter and care to migrant children entering the United States alone.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has paid Catholic Charities for numerous years to house immigrant children entering the U.S. without adult supervision. The federal government contacted the charity about the cancellation in late March, according to The Miami Herald.
The HHS said that the cancellation was motivated by a falling number of migrant children entering the country without parents or adult supervisors.
In a statement to Newsweek, HHS said that the daily population of unaccompanied alien children in ORR care is significantly lower at 1,900 than the peak of 22,000 children during the Biden administration.
“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,” Emily G. Hillard, the HHS press secretary, told Newsweek. She did not comment specifically on the case of the Miami nonprofit.
The abrupt severing of the White House's long-term support to the nonprofit comes amid an ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV. Responding to Leo’s repeated criticism of the Iran war, Trump bashed the pope on Sunday in a social media post in which he called him “weak” on crime and “terrible” for foreign policy, urging him to “get his act together as Pope.”
Newsweek contacted the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami and HHS for comment by email on Thursday morning.
How Has Miami’s Archdiocese and Community Responded?
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who recently defended the pontiff in his spar with Trump saying that “he doesn’t have to please anybody except the Lord,”commented on the contract cancellation in a statement shared with the Miami Herald.
“The U.S. government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami,” he said. “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.”
The religious leader, who is known to be a strong advocate for immigration rights, added: “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.”
While acknowledging that the number of migrant children entering the U.S. without adult supervision has diminished in recent years and “some programs may be scaled back,” Wenski said that “it is baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence.”
Members of the Miami parish are “beyond shocked,” CBS News Miami reported, adding that these charities could now disappear “in a matter of months” without federal funding.
“I feel very sad. Disappointed,” Father Federico Capdepom, who retired in 2016 after 33 years of priesthood in the Archdiocese of Miami, told the news channel. “The children that we’ve helped for so many, many years—to abruptly cancel $11 million, I believe, of help for migrants, I think it’s totally unacceptable.”
A parishioner interviewed by the news channel called the cancellation “disgraceful.”
It is yet unclear whether the children who are still in the care of the Miami nonprofit would need to be relocated and where they would go should the nonprofit shut down.
Is This Article Fair?
Update 4/16/26, 9:39 a.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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