WASHINGTON (RNS) — President Donald Trump remains locked in at least five major lawsuits filed by religious groups during the first two months of his new administration, showing tensions between the White House and the faith-based organizations challenging his agenda.
The latest chapter in the ongoing legal battles unfolded on Monday (March 17), when a legal report announced the federal government had paid Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Worth more than $47 million for refugee resettlement work — funds frozen since Trump halted the federal refugee program in January.
The case highlights a sustained faith-based pushback to Trump’s actions that began almost immediately after he took office. His efforts to reshape the federal government and dramatically alter immigration policy have been met with religious resistance almost every step of the way — including in the courts.
The payment in Texas was part of a broader outcry against Trump’s decision to effectively freeze the refugee program and, in turn, abruptly halt funds — including for work done before Trump became president — for the groups that partner with the government to resettle refugees once they’ve arrived in the United States.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the millions paid to Fort Worth’s Catholic Charities agency, which has overseen Texas’ refugee resettlement services since Gov. Greg Abbott pulled the state from the federal program in 2016, was part of a suit filed in early March against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which supplies some funds related to refugee resettlement.
In the lawsuit, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Worth demanded it be paid millions in withheld funds it typically distributes to various partner organizations in the state, alleging Trump’s funding freeze was unlawful and led to widespread layoffs.
The Texas result follows another legal victory for faith groups involved in a similar case, Pacito v. Trump, filed by national faith-based refugee resettlement agencies Church World Service and HIAS, alongside Lutheran Community Services Northwest and individual refugees and their families, against the Trump administration for suspending the refugee program. In late February, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, the federal judge overseeing the case in Seattle, blocked the president’s executive order halting the suspension of the refugee program.
However, the day after the ruling, the government sent out “termination orders” regarding federal contracts, also known as cooperative agreements, to all 10 refugee resettlement groups working with the government. The administration then argued in court that the organizations, seven of which are faith-based, no longer had standing to sue. The move resulted in a tense court hearing March 4, in which Whitehead questioned the timing of the termination orders.
Resettlement groups also argued they had yet to see evidence of the refugee program restarting to comply with the judge’s order, prompting Whitehead to order the government to produce a status report released last week. In it, federal authorities acknowledged a “significant deterioration of functions” of the refugee program.
In that same March 4 hearing, lawyers for the government suggested the abrupt contract cancellations were part of ongoing litigation in yet another case, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops v. U.S. Department of State, filed in Washington, D.C. Unlike Pacito v. Trump, the suit filed by the USCCB — which also partners with the federal government to resettle refugees — was narrower in scope: The bishops focused primarily on the government’s contracts with the USCCB in the U.S., alleging the government had violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
The USCCB’s request for a preliminary injunction was denied by a judge in early March, who argued the case should be resolved by the Court of Federal Claims. In response, the USCCB asked the D.C. Circuit appeals court to issue an emergency injunction — the only feasible way to recoup the withheld funds within a relevant timeline. The USCCB, like other resettlement agencies, offers refugees 90 days of assistance upon arrival into the U.S., but the Trump administration froze the program on Jan. 24, meaning the bishops have until April 23 to offer refugees still under their care any funds traditionally provided by the government.
The D.C. Circuit is expected to respond by the end of next week.
