Biden immigration crisis was a boon for Catholic Charities, which raked in billions in grant money

President Joe Biden’s border policies were a boon for private religious charities associated with the Catholic Church, which collectively received billions in grant money while helping house and resettle migrants, while a federal watchdog warned about mismanaged funds and a potential for fraud. 

The funding for these humanitarian programs that came through the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency has come under renewed scrutiny by President Trump and his administration, who seek to reverse years of financial incentives for the crisis of border crossings under their predecessor. 

Catholic Charities USA, comprised of 168 local member agencies across the United States, is one of the largest private recipients of government funding under several immigration-related programs that critics have said allowed the Biden administration to relocate and shelter migrants in the United States. 

According to data from USAspending.gov, Catholic Charities branches across the United States collected over $2 billion in federal grants over the last four years of the Biden administration, primarily through the Department of Health and Human Services which granted about $1.93 billion for programs. Other agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security and Housing and Urban Development also doled out significant—if smaller—sums, about $156 million and $138 million, respectively. 

Catholic Charities USA did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News. 

Grants to Catholic Charities across the U.S. 

Many of Catholic Charities’ local subsidiary offices received a game-changing influx of cash during the Biden administration. The money was allocated for migrant settlement and other services. For many local chapters, these new funds dwarfed the previous grants they had been awarded in previous years. 

For example, the endowment associated with Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Fort Worth in Texas experienced a more than 34 fold increase in funding from government grants from FY 2021 to FY 2023. In FY 2021, at the beginning of the Biden administration, the group had only received $11.7 million in grant money. By FY 2023, that amount had ballooned to $401.7 million. A majority of that funding was earmarked for a “Refugee and Entrant Assistance” program, according to the financial records. 

Catholic Charities Fort Worth offers comprehensive immigration services, including legal support for defending an immigrant against removal proceedings from the United States, according to the group’s Immigration Services website. 

“Having legal representation is the single most important factor in successfully winning a removal case,” the website reads. “Catholic Charities provides quality, affordable and effective representation with the goal of keeping families safe and keeping them together.” 

Other local offices experienced a comparable influx of cash geared to refugee and migrant assistance. 

For example, Catholic Charities of Louisville, Kentucky also experienced a similar growth in funding over the same period. In FY 2021, the group took in roughly $10 million in federal grants, but by FY 2023, that number had exploded to about $122 million. That chapter also offers similar immigration services, including legal support against deportation. 

FEMA enters the immigration business

Under the Biden administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency became one of the conduits for providing taxpayer funding to local organizations for immigration services. The agency faced scrutiny from Republicans who say providing services to migrants falls outside the scope of the disaster management agency. 

The criticism of the agency’s Shelter and Services program reached a zenith last year after Biden Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress that FEMA did not have extra funds to help Southern states like Florida and North Carolina recover from dual hurricanes last year after it had dispersed funds for immigration services. 

In the midst of the last major budget crisis in Washington, Democrats diverted money and the legal authority to put the nation’s disaster relief agency into the business of caring for the millions of illegal immigrants who crossed the border on the Biden-Harris administration’s watch, Just the News reported last year. At that time, the White House laughed off the claims as another "right-wing conspiracy theory."

The new Shelter and Services program first established by a Democratic Congress in 2022 would “support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities, including facility improvements and construction, in support of relieving overcrowding in short-term holding facilities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” according to the Congressional Research Service. 

Inspector General raises potential for fraud and misuse of funds

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General raised concerns that funding being diverted from FEMA to local nonprofit organizations for immigration-related services was ripe for misuse or potential fraud. 

The OIG found “local recipient organizations” did not always use funding in line with federal guidance and in some cases did not “provide the required receipts or documentation for claimed reimbursements.” The watchdog’s probe also found that some local organizations “were unable to provide supporting documentation for families and individuals to whom they provided services” and some families or individuals served “did not have a DHS encounter record.” 

You can read the OIG report below: 

“These issues occurred because FEMA did not provide sufficient oversight of the funds and instead relied on local boards and fiscal agents to enforce the funding and application guidance,” the inspector general concluded. “As a result, FEMA, as the National Board Chair, cannot ensure the humanitarian relief funds were used as intended by the funding and application guidance.” 

“When you look at the way some of these charities have applied for money, through the FEMA emergency disaster program, through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and then realizing that it is HHS and DHS and the Office of Refugee Resettlement that have lost track of 300,000 children and they're still getting money,” Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. 

“Totally rewarding failure and incompetence and what we have to do is realize that, especially when it comes to FEMA, we've got people in Tennessee and North Carolina that never expected a hurricane to end up in the Great Smoky Mountains, which it did with Hurricane Helene, and that they would be pushed out of their mountain homes because of a flood, and FEMA has been slow to respond, and these are individuals that are desperate to get some help and support,” she continued. 

Some Catholic Charities accused of misusing FEMA funds

Catholic Charities San Antonio, which received more than $27 million in total from FEMA, was accused by a Democratic congressman of misusing funds it received for the program by purchasing airplane tickets for migrants in its care. 

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, the then-ranking member of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee and member who helped create the program, and Rep. Monica de la Cruz, a Republican, told the Border Report that the program was never intended to support long distance travel but rather things like food and shelter. 

“When I first started this program, I said it would only be used for food and shelter, maybe transportation inside a city, but not to be sending them up there. The family or somebody should pay for that, not the taxpayer dollars,” Cuellar told the outlet last April. 

However, Catholic Charities San Antonio said that nothing in FEMA rules prevented them from purchasing plane tickets for migrants in their care and confirmed that his organization did help migrants travel outside the city, but had not purchased any plane tickets since the end of 2023. 

“The funds were given to us to provide food, clothing, all these activities, including transportation,” Jose Antonio Fernandez, CEO of the chapter, told the National Catholic Register. 

“It’s not my interpretation, it is a fact; many companies in the U.S. provide transportation because it is allowed,” he said. “If you contact FEMA, they will tell you that, yes, you are actually allowed to provide transportation.”

Pope Francis criticizes Trump administration policy

Pope Francis on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Catholic Bishops in America that called the Trump administration’s “mass deportation” policy a “major crisis.” 

“The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” the Pope asserted. “At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival.

“That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” the Pope continued, and urged the bishops to continue their work with “migrants and refugees.” 

The Pope’s position on mass deportations has rankled Catholics in the Trump administration. Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, is a Catholic and has argued that facilitating illegal immigration does more harm than good, citing incidents of sexual assault, human trafficking, and even death on the journey to America through Mexico. 

When asked about Pope Francis’ prior criticism of the administration’s policies, Homan fired back, saying he “ought to stick to the Catholic Church and fix that. That’s a mess,” in an interview with Newsmax.