The Trump administration has ended an $11 million federal contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, a program that has housed and cared for unaccompanied migrant children for more than 60 years.
As reported by the Miami Herald, the contract was funded through the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and supported shelter, foster care placement, family reunification, and counseling for children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or guardian.
The decision, first communicated to the charity in late March, could force the program to shut down within three months, according to archdiocese officials.
Archbishop Thomas Wenski addressed the impact of such programs in a recent statement written for the Miami Herald’s editorial board.
“The U.S. government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami,” he 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.”
According to the archbishop, the archdiocese’s “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.”
The Trump administration has argued funding cuts reflect declining demand and a broader effort to scale back migrant services amid stricter border enforcement policies. HHS Press Secretary Emily Hillard told the Miami Herald that the daily number of unaccompanied children in federal care is now about 1,900 — far lower than a peak of roughly 22,000 during the Biden administration.
She said the agency 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,” though she did not specifically mention Catholic Charities.
Archbishop Wenski acknowledged that decrease but said it is “baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence” shown by the Church.
The archbishop said the program offers important supportive services “given the trauma that many of these children have endured before arriving in the U.S.”
According to the Miami Herald, Catholic Charities operated a full-service child welfare program in the Miami-Dade area. One shelter known as the Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village in Cutler Bay has 81 beds for unaccompanied minors and was created in the early 1960s after Operation Pedro Pan brought more than 14,000 Cuban children to Florida, according to the archdiocese.
It is unclear how many children currently in the care of Catholic Charities in Miami will be affected or where they will be transferred.
The news comes amid multiple criticisms by President Donald Trump of Pope Leo XIV over the Pontiff’s opposition to the Iran war. Trump issued two posts on Truth Social in recent days, calling the Holy Father “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy” in an April 12 post.
On April 14, Trump wrote, “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”