USCCB & Catholic Charities Received $449 Million to Exploit Migrant Children

We are deeply troubled by the news of missing migrant children, and our concern intensifies with the revelation that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Charities have received millions in federal funds to manage these vulnerable unaccompanied minors. This issue strikes at the heart of our faith, especially as we approach the feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita on February 8th, the patron saint of human trafficking victims.

 

The Unsettling Reality of Unaccompanied Migrant Children

During President Biden’s administration, an estimated 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. According to Tom Homan, former acting director of ICE, and other sources, over 300,000 of these children have gone missing after being placed in the care of HHS through NGOs. Shockingly, there has been no concerted effort to track down 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children, according to HHS testimony last year. ICE was able to locate another 32,000 of the unaccompanied migrant children, but these children missed their court hearings. This leaves us with a grim reality: 323,000 children are unlocated, and their safety is uncertain, making them vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation.

 Read here: USCCB and Catholic Charities collected $2.4 Billion for migrants during the Biden Administration

The Catholic NGOs Involved

Here are the Gang of Four Catholic NGOs who “served” the unaccompanied children across the border (unaccompanied alien children “UAC):

• Catholic Charities USA: They provide immediate shelter, food, and long-term support like legal aid and health services, directly managing the day-to-day care for many unaccompanied minors.
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): Acts as a coordinator for the UAC program, managing funds and programs, including shelter services and legal representation, often subcontracting to Catholic Charities.
• Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC): Focuses on legal aid, not shelter, offering support to unaccompanied children in navigating immigration laws.
• Catholic Relief Services (CRS): Engages in advocacy for migrant issues, including UAC, from a policy perspective.

Catholic Charities, in particular, has received intense scrutiny, for the sheer volume of children they have trafficked, and their role in fracturing the family unit as well as placing children with unvetted sponsors. Whistleblower Tara Rodas has highlighted a system where children end up in exploitative conditions due to insufficient oversight.

 

Catholic NGOs Receive Nearly Half Billion Dollars for Unaccompanied Migrant Children

CUP’s research (through analysis of USASpending.gov) reveals the USCCB and Catholic Charities have received $449 million in total to shelter and transport unaccompanied migrant children. Here is how it breaks down.

USCCB
The USCCB for their role has received $236 million since 2008 to oversee the UAC Program.

The USCCB intermediates federal grants to local Catholic Charities and affiliated organizations, sub-allocating the funds to them for UAC care, while we can infer they are retaining some of the funds for “management” of the UAC program.

Catholic Charities

Catholic Charities affiliates directly received $213 million for the Unaccompanied Aliens Children’s Program, with significant funding received by Galveston-Houston and Miami:

The primary source of federal funding for Catholic Charities in Galveston-Houston and Miami has been linked to the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program, with 87% and 81% of their total federal funds coming from this program, respectively.

 

Whistleblowers Expose The Ugly Reality … USA Gov-Sponsored Child Trafficking

The House Homeland Security Subcommittees on Border Security and Oversight held a joint hearing to examine the handling of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) crossing the Southwest border by DHS and HHS. This investigation revealed that current processes have led to increasing numbers of missing and exploited children in the U.S. Whistleblower Tara Rodas (and others) testified about inadequate vetting of UAC sponsors and child exploitation by gangs like MS-13. Retired U.S. Border Patrol Deputy Agent J.J. Carrell and counter-trafficking expert Alicia Hopper discussed the exploitation of these children for organ harvesting, sex trafficking, and forced labor.

Rodas testified about improperly vetted sponsors leading to fears of trafficking. She described it as “government-sponsored, taxpayer-funded child trafficking” where children were placed with strangers or criminals. Deborah White and others cited cases of children sent to abandoned or non-existent addresses, or to sponsors linked with criminal organizations.

“Child trafficking has evolved into an international syndicate of gangs and cartels that is highly organized and very efficient. Smugglers and traffickers, during this administration, have moved many of the more than 500,000 unaccompanied children that have flooded across the U.S. Southern border.” – Tara Rodas, HHS Whistleblower

 

Did the USCCB and Catholic Charities Take Corrective Action?

Did the USCCB or Catholic Charities take action to:

• Find the missing children?
• Rescue the children from trafficking or exploitation?

Or did the bishops and their Catholic Charities operatives:

• Ignore the issue and continue collecting millions to transfer more children?

 

The Wellbeing of the Children

In CUP’s research we found there was a rising percentage of children who were placed with an unrelated adult for fiscal years 2021, 2022 and 2023. That percentage increased from 10% of placements to 13% with unrelated adults from 2021 to 2023.

This should raise significant concerns about the welfare and safety of these children. The fact that a notable percentage of unaccompanied children (UAC) are released to unrelated sponsors underscores the challenges with sponsors who are actually vetted. Even with background checks, the suitability of unrelated sponsors can be a point of contention, especially in terms of the long-term welfare of the child.

Catholic Charities and the USCCB should not have participated in the UAC program. Separating children from their nuclear families causes profound psychological and emotional harm. Rather than supporting the children, these Catholic NGOs worsened their trauma by perpetuating separation. Prioritizing family reunification or solutions that preserved family units would have been more humane than placing children in systems or with perpetrators, which was at best grossly negligent and at worst, criminal.

There are documented cases where children end up in exploitative or abusive situations when released to unvetted or unrelated sponsors. Testimonies, such as those by Tara Rodas, highlight these issues. It’s deeply disturbing that the USCCB and Catholic Charities should have known about these events and yet allowed them to happen. Here are the questions we should ask them:

1. Why did you forsake proper vetting? Sponsors were often not met in person, and background checks were insufficient or ignored.
2. Why did you continue to accept the unaccompanied migrant children when the volume was unmanageable? Concerns were raised about the sheer volume of children being processed, leading to shortcuts in safety protocols.
3. Why did you not take action and stop participating in this process when you knew children were being harmed? There were reports of children ending up in forced labor, sex trafficking, or other forms of abuse due to inadequate sponsor vetting.

The gravity of this matter leads to scandal for the entire Church. We need answers and the USCCB and Catholic Charities should do everything in their power to help find the missing children and make restitutions.

Actions to Take

We appreciate President Trump’s executive order suspending the Refugee Settlement Admissions Program and its funding. However, the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program, managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement under HHS, is separate. We hope that the review of the refugee program includes an examination of the UAC program, leading to a potential freeze of its funds.

Reach out to your elected representatives to express your concerns about the welfare of unaccompanied children, citing your strong opposition to Catholic NGOs taking part in this, and the need to freeze funding of the UAC Program. It is time to end the trafficking of these vulnerable children.

We need to ensure every child is protected, not trafficked under the guise of care. Join us in this fight to safeguard our children, a sacred duty we cannot ignore.