The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sued the Trump administration Feb. 18 over the suspension of funding of refugee resettlement assistance.

In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the bishops called this suspension "unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees," The Associated Press first reported.

The bishops also stated in their legal complaint, a copy of which OSV News has obtained, that the suspension -- which they described as "a textbook arbitrary-and-capricious agency action" -- "violates multiple statutes" and "undermines the Constitution’s separation of powers."

Advertisement

A USCCB spokesperson told OSV News that the lawsuit urges the government "to uphold its legal and moral obligations" to refugees and to restore the funding needed to ensure that faith-based and community organizations can continue their work with refugees.

The USCCB's Migration and Refugee Services is one of 10 national resettlement agencies that work with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which was established by Congress in 1980, formalizing the process by which refugees are legally resettled in the United States.

USRAP was suspended through an executive order signed by President Donald Trump Jan. 20 and is being evaluated to see whether refugee resettlement "is in the national interest." The State Department issued suspension notices to domestic resettlement agencies, including the USCCB, on Jan. 24, which has impacted resettlement agencies' ability to carry out services for refugees, including those under the Reception and Placement Program, according to an alert to support refugee resettlement seen in USCCB's Action Alert Center.

The R&P Program is a domestic effort that provides assistance to newly arrived refugees to meet initial needs such as housing and job placement during the first 90 days that they are in the country.

According to AP's reporting on the lawsuit, the USCCB's president, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, said that "the conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status."

Chieko Noguchi, USCCB spokesperson, told OSV News Feb. 18 that the lawsuit filed by the USCCB "challenges the suspension of the funding for refugee assistance we have run for decades."

"Refugees are individuals who have undergone special screening and vetting procedures by the U.S. government and are fleeing hardship and persecution in their home countries to resettle in the United States," she said in an email. "Throughout this long-time partnership with the U.S. government, the USCCB has helped nearly a million individuals find safety and build their lives in the United States."

Advertisement

Under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, refugees are persons who have left their countries of origin and are unwilling or unable to return due to actual or well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion.

As the lawsuit states, the USCCB "runs the largest non-governmental refugee-resettlement program in the United States" and currently serves approximately 17% of refugees being resettled in the United States.

"We are urging the government to uphold its legal and moral obligations to refugees and to restore the necessary funding to ensure that faith-based and community organizations can continue this vital work that reflects our nation's values of compassion, justice, and hospitality," Noguchi said.

In their lawsuit, the U.S. bishops specify three counts of violations against the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies make rules. The USCCB claims the "blunderbuss" funding suspension contravenes appropriations statutes, while failing to follow standard notice and comment requirements in rulemaking.

The bishops said that in suspending the program funding, "the government utterly failed to consider the dire consequences of its actions" or entertain alternatives.

The suit also took aim at the Trump administration's "first rationale" for the suspension, which alleged the move aligned with Trump's executive order halting foreign assistance. The bishops said such foreign assistance, "whatever its meaning, cannot plausibly include awards to an American non-profit for refugees in the United States."

The bishops also noted in their complaint the government "did not explain why its agreements" with the USCCB no longer fit the administration's unspecified priorities, "a particularly glaring omission given that the government has continuously funded USCCB’s refugee programs for decades."

Moreover, they said, "in issuing the Refugee Funding Suspension, the government also ignored its own regulations."

Advertisement

The USCCB seeks to have the funding suspension set aside, with the administration "temporarily, preliminarily, and permanently" enjoined from taking any action against the USCCB in the matter. The bishops also ask to have the USCCB reimbursed "for all expenses it has incurred or will incur" as part of its current resettlement program agreements, along with legal fees for its case against the Trump administration and "such other relief as this Court may deem just and proper."

(Maria-Pia Negro Chin is the Spanish editor for OSV News. Gina Christian, multimedia reporter for OSV News, contributed to this article.)