Trump Pulls Millions in Funding From Miami Catholic Charity for Migrant Children Amid Escalating Feud with Pope Leo XIV

The Trump administration has canceled an $11 million federal contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, abruptly ending a more than 60-year partnership with the government to shelter and care for unaccompanied migrant children, a move that comes amid intensifying public hostilities between the White House and the Vatican.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, notified the charity in late March of the contract cancellation, forcing the organization to shut down its child welfare program within three months . The program includes the 81-bed Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village in Cutler Bay, along with foster homes and family reunification services for children entering the United States without parents or guardians.

The funding decision lands as President Donald Trump has engaged in a series of public attacks on Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pontiff, over the pope’s criticism of the US-Israeli war in Iran . Trump posted a lengthy Truth Social broadside against the pope on April 12, calling him “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” and claiming that the pope owed his election to the papacy to Trump’s presidency . The following day, Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ healing a sick man, which drew swift backlash including from former Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who described the post as “blasphemy”.

Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, also weighed in, saying it was “very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology” . Pope Leo responded from his papal plane during an 11-day tour of Africa, telling reporters that debating Trump was “not in my interest at all” and that coverage of his remarks had been driven by a political narrative.

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski issued a statement expressing bafflement at the funding cancellation, given the program’s six-decade record of excellence. “The US government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami,” Wenski wrote. “The Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country”.

“Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors has been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months,” Wenski added . He acknowledged that the number of unaccompanied minors entering the country has fallen but questioned the decision to dismantle a system he said would be difficult to replicate. “It is baffling that the US government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence and excellence that Catholic Charities has achieved if and when future waves of unaccompanied minors reach our shores,” he wrote.

The Department of Health and Human Services defended the move, stating that the daily population of unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody has dropped significantly to about 1,900 under the Trump administration, compared to a peak of 22,000 during the Biden administration. “ORR is closing and consolidating unused facilities as the Trump administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children,” HHS press secretary Emily Hilliard said.

Father Federico Capdepon of Corpus Christi Church in Miami expressed disappointment over the funding cut. “The children that we have helped for so many, many years — to cancel abruptly $11 million for helping migrants — I think is totally unacceptable,” Capdepon told CBS News Miami . Parishioner Jenniffer de Jesus Sanchez added, “This is disgraceful because the children are a creation of God. They are sons of God”.

Two Republican lawmakers from Florida, Representative María Elvira Salazar and Representative Carlos Giménez, issued a letter to the ORR asking the department to reconsider the decision. “South Florida has always been the frontline of humanitarian migration in our hemisphere,” the April 3 letter read. “Catholic Charities provides what cannot be quickly replaced: trained staff, proven infrastructure, and decades of expertise”.

The Catholic Church’s role in caring for unaccompanied children in South Florida dates to Operation Pedro Pan in the early 1960s, when an estimated 14,000 Cuban children were airlifted to Miami in partnership with the US State Department . Wenski wrote that “the positive impact of this cooperation between the federal government and Catholic Charities can be readily seen in the lives of former Pedro Pan children who, through this intervention, grew up to be successful members of our communities”.

The exact number of children currently in Catholic Charities’ care remains unclear, but any relocation to new foster homes or shelters is likely to be traumatic for minors who have already endured significant instability. Robert Latham of the University of Miami Law School’s Children and Youth Law Clinic told the Miami Herald, “It’s incredibly psychologically harmful to be moved. For little kids, moving repeatedly creates bonding issues and destroys the sense of both self and community”.