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GOP LAWMAKERS ONCE PRAISED CATHOLIC CHARITIES. NOW THEY WANT TO DEFUND THE
GROUP.


SOME REPUBLICANS DON’T LIKE THE WORK OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES AND OTHER FAITH-BASED
GROUPS HELPING MIGRANTS AT THE U.S. BORDER

By Jack Jenkins
July 28, 2023 at 2:51 p.m. EDT

Asylum-seeking migrants enter the Catholic Charities respite center after they
were released from a migrant facility in McAllen, Tex., on Aug. 10, 2021. (Go
Nakamura for The Washington Post)

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A few Republican members of Congress are threatening to reduce or eliminate
funding for Catholic Charities and other faith-based groups that offer aid to
immigrants at the U.S. southern border.

The lawmakers, who are echoing the campaigns of conservative Catholic groups
that vow to “#defund the bishops,” have already succeeded in inserting their
agenda into legislation passed by the House this year. Another attempt to
zero-out appropriations for a key Department of Homeland Security program
supporting faith-based border efforts is awaiting a vote in Congress.



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In December, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Tex.), who serves on the House Judiciary
Committee, wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In
the letter, co-signed by Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) and Jake Ellzey (R-Tex.),
the lawmakers complained that the Biden administration was “allowing
non-governmental organizations … the freedom to aid and abet illegal aliens.”

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In addition, lawmakers sent letters to Catholic Charities, Jewish Family
Services and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service demanding that they
preserve documents “related to any expenditures submitted for reimbursement from
the federal government related to migrants encountered at the southern border.”

Contacted by Religion News Service, Anthony Granado, vice president of
government relations at Catholic Charities USA, said, “We have not seen such a
level of direct … attack against Catholic Charities USA.”

In May, when Gooden wrote another letter to Mayorkas, this time with Reps. Tom
McClintock (R-Calif.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), they accused the nong0overnmental
organizations that use federal funds to aid immigrants of creating an
“incentive” for illegal immigration and demanded access to a broad swath of
records about DHS funding practices.



Days later, Gooden published an open letter to House colleagues that accused
NGOs, including faith-based groups, of abusing their tax-exempt status by
“play(ing) a disturbing role in the inflow and spread of illegal immigration
throughout the country.”

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Gooden, who worships at a Church of Christ congregation, expressed particular
frustration with FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program — which is
transitioning to an effort titled the Shelter and Services Program — that
reimburses NGOs and local governments for offering certain aid to migrants. He
mentioned a number of faith-based groups in his solo letter, such as Jewish
Family Services and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, but criticized
Catholic Charities at length.

For his part, Tiffany recently called for Catholic Charities USA to testify
before the Judiciary Committee to explain “what they’re doing down on the border
to facilitate this illegal immigration,” according to Bloomberg Government.

In a phone interview last week, Lee Williams, chief programs officer for
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, called the lawmakers’ allegations
“preposterous” and “dangerous.” He also said that LIRS aids immigrants after
they are processed and released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, work
that is funded by private money.

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Catholic Charities, for its part, receives ample government funds annually and
operates as a network of local charities. In addition to anti-poverty programs,
Catholic Charities also works with immigrants — including efforts to offer
humanitarian aid to migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.

It’s work that, not long ago, Republicans in Congress nearly uniformly praised.
In 2014, amid a spike in border crossings by unaccompanied minors and mothers
traveling with children, a delegation of Republican lawmakers led by talk-show
host Glenn Beck visited a Catholic Charities respite center based in a church in
McAllen, Tex. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Rep. Randy Weber (R-Tex.) and then-Rep.
Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.), among others, toured the center and, in Beck’s case,
donated toys to children.



“I want to thank Catholic Charities that are working to care for these children
and care for these families,” Cruz told reporters.

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Weber was similarly effusive, quoting scripture while describing the center’s
work as a fulfillment of “the church’s role.”

Mistrust of faith groups that work with immigrants, but in particular Catholic
Charities, has been growing in right-wing circles since at least February 2022,
when CatholicVote, a conservative political group, sued the Biden administration
in an effort to acquire copies of “all communications between the U.S. Customs
and Border Patrol” and various Catholic bishops and Catholic Charities entities
— including the respite center in McAllen.

The antipathy for Catholic Charities came up again last summer, when Michael
Voris, founder of the conservative Catholic website Church Militant, interviewed
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a self-described Christian nationalist
and former Catholic who converted to evangelicalism. Voris, whose organization
has referred to Catholic Charities as an “enemy of the people,” complained to
Greene about the American bishops supporting immigrant aid through religious
agencies such as Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities. Greene
responded by framing the work as “Satan controlling the church.”

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Most recently, in Washington on July 20, members of the Deposit of Faith
Coalition, a group of activists who object to the direction the U.S. Catholic
bishops are taking and accuse them of “standing with Marxists,” called on
Congress — and particularly appropriations committees — to stop granting
contracts to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities.

Addressing the crowd from a podium at the National Press Club that read
“#DefundtheBishops,” Sheena Rodriguez, head of Alliance for a Safe Texas, said
that Catholic Charities was one constellation of groups “incentiviz(ing) mass
illegal migration worldwide” and “creating a modern-day slavery scheme.”

The gathering attracted only a small crowd, but their ideas have gained a
footing on Capitol Hill. In April, Rodriguez was invited to testify before the
House Judiciary Committee on border security, and she alleged that unaccompanied
minors at the border were being mistreated under the Biden administration.



After her testimony, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) pointed out that Rodriguez
was among the crowd that surrounded the U.S. Capitol when rioters attacked the
building on Jan. 6, 2021, although there is no evidence Rodriguez entered the
building that day. She had also taken part in the Christian nationalism-themed
Jericho March at the Capitol the day before.

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The movement to defund Catholic agencies also found its way into the GOP’s
signature border-security bill passed in May, known as the Secure the Border
Act. It included a provision that would cut all funding to the Shelter and
Services Program.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposed the Secure the Border Act for
multiple reasons, including how it treats DHS funding streams to NGOs.

The bishops sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to vote against it. Sister
Donna Markham, a nun who oversees Catholic Charities USA, also wrote a letter to
congressional leadership decrying the proposed cuts, saying they would
“dismantle the public-private infrastructure currently in place to manage the
humanitarian crisis at the southern border and its impact throughout the
country.”

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The bill passed the House largely along party lines, with Gooden, Tiffany and
Weber voting in favor.

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The bill has little chance of passing the U.S. Senate, where Democrats have a
majority, but Gooden’s movement persists: Last month the House Appropriations
Committee unveiled a DHS appropriations bill, which, like the border bill,
eliminates funding for the Shelter and Services Program.

Markham said in a statement to RNS that the work of respite centers along the
U.S.-Mexico border should be uncontroversial and invited members of Congress to
tour their facilities.

“This work is humanitarian and motivated by the teachings of the gospels; it is
not political, and it should not be controversial,” Markham’s statement read.

— Religion News Service

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