WASHINGTON (RNS) — President Donald Trump‘s administration is making moves to shutter a decades-old partnership between the government and a group of mostly religious organizations to resettle refugees, with the State Department abruptly canceling grant agreements with all the agencies despite ongoing legal battles.
On Wednesday (Feb. 26), refugee resettlement organizations, such as Church World Service, HIAS and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, say they received “termination notification” letters from the State Department.
“This award is being terminated for the convenience of the U.S. Government pursuant to a directive from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for alignment with Agency priorities and national interest,” read one of the letters, addressed to Church World Service, according to a legal filing from Thursday. “The decision to terminate this individual award is a policy determination vested in the Secretary of State.”
Leaders of the faith-based refugee resettlement organizations, which constitute seven of the 10 groups that partner with the government to perform the task, condemned the decision.
“Our status as a resettlement agency based on this termination notice is over,” Danilo Zak, director of policy for Church World Service, told RNS in an interview. He added that CWS is “still trying to figure out the legality” of the action and whether the administration intended to bring the partnership to such an abrupt end, but said, “I think we have to assume it did.”
He also noted the termination did not include a thorough review, which is the typical protocol for canceling a grant.
“We understand this is the result of an exceedingly cursory review of these programs,” Zak said.
He was echoed by Myal Greene, the president of World Relief, an evangelical Christian group.
“With the cancellation of World Relief and other Resettlement Agency agreements, this is effectively ending a 45 year, bi-partisan, refugee resettlement program with the stroke of a pen,” Greene said in a statement.
“As followers of Jesus, we are called to serve ‘the least of these,’ and cutting off life-saving assistance to vulnerable communities is an abdication of that responsibility,” Greene continued. “The Church has long played a role in alleviating suffering, but we cannot do it alone. Our government must uphold its commitment to protecting human dignity and aiding those in greatest need.”
Timothy Young, spokesperson for Global Refuge, a Lutheran organization that assists with refugee resettlement, told RNS all 10 resettlement orgs received the notices.
“Prior to this, we had received a stop work order from State and were hopeful it might be lifted after the administration’s 90-day review — but before that review could even be completed, our grants were terminated,” Young said in an email.
