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Feuding with Pope Leo, Trump Cancels $11 Million Contract for Catholic Charity Helping Homeless Migrant Children
"The administration chose to strip funding from a Catholic ministry that cares for traumatized children," said one Catholic commentator. "The real reason is retaliation."
Apr 17, 2026
In a move that the archbishop of Miami called "baffling," President Donald Trump suddenly cut ties with a Catholic charity dedicated to helping unaccompanied migrant children in what many interpreted as a gesture of contempt amid his feud with Pope Leo XIV.
In an op-ed for the Miami Herald on Wednesday, Archbishop Thomas Wenski explained that Trump had abruptly cut off $11 million of funding and ended more than 60 years of government partnership with the Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami, which “has worked closely with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to provide shelter and other services to thousands of unaccompanied minor children of all nationalities.”
Wenski said: "For more than 60 years, 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."
Emily Hillard, the press secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told the Herald that the relationship had been terminated because the number of unaccompanied minors entering the US is “significantly lower” under the Trump administration than under that of former President Joe Biden.
According to HHS, the number of unaccompanied children under the agency's care is about 1,900, a significant decrease from the peak of the Biden administration, when it held about 22,000.
She said the Office of Refugee Resettlement was canceling the contract as part of a process of “closing and consolidating unused facilities as the Trump administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children."
"The real reason is retaliation."
But while Wenski acknowledged that fewer unaccompanied minors are entering the US, he pointed out that the Miami charity’s facilities are hardly “unused.”
Wenski said its Children's Village facility in Palmetto Bay can hold up to 81 minors, whom it helps to place in foster care, reunite with family members, and provide supportive services.
He said, “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.”
While the White House did not name Pope Leo as a factor in Trump’s sudden decision to gut the Catholic Charities funding, Christopher Hale, the author of the Pope-centric newsletter Letters from Leo, argues that “the timing tells you everything about the motive.”
Trump slashed the Catholic Charities funding just two days after lambasting Leo for being "WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy" following the pontiff's criticism of his war in Iran.
Leo responded that he has “no fear of the Trump administration” and will “continue to speak out loudly against war.” On Thursday, Leo added that “the world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants" who spend billions of dollars to wage war and condemned “those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
“They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education, and restoration are nowhere to be found," Leo said.
"This is the context in which the administration chose to strip funding from a Catholic ministry that cares for traumatized children," Hale wrote. "The real reason is retaliation, and the pattern stretches back to the administration’s first days."
He noted that in December, Trump also canceled funding for six years to the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, which operates a migrant shelter in McAllen and has assisted more than 500,000 migrants since its founding in 2014.
The government's contract with Catholic Charities in Miami dates back to 1960, when—as part of what was called Operation "Pedro Pan"—the organization sheltered more than 14,000 Cuban children whose parents had sent them alone to Florida by plane or by boat to flee the revolution led by Fidel Castro.
The Trump administration has acknowledged that a large new wave of migrants could be imminent as people flee the devastating consequences of its fuel blockade in Cuba, which military leaders have acknowledged could cause a "humanitarian crisis." In recent days, reports have said Trump is mulling plans to attack Cuba militarily.
Last month, SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis Donovan said the US military was coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to prepare to house any potential influx of refugees at the US military prison in Guantánamo Bay, a proposal that has been decried by dozens of human rights groups.
Catholic leaders in Miami told the Herald that blocking funds to the Catholic Charities and forcing the closure of the Children’s Village will needlessly traumatize dozens of children who have come there for refuge and have already endured enormous hardship, many having arrived in the US after fleeing poverty and violent conflict.
“You don’t cross several borders, you don’t walk across Mexico if you are 10 or 12 years old without being exposed and suffering trauma of one type or the other,” Wenski said.
Wenski and Catholic Charities CEO Pedro Routsis-Arroyo have asked the federal government to reconsider pulling the funding. Without it, they say many of the children will be forced to relocate to other shelter programs, which can create more trauma and instability.
"Who loses?" Routsis-Arroyo said. "The children lose."
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DeSantis Declares Emergency Over Floods After Cutting Stormwater Funds
"As I'm sitting here stuck on a Brightline train because of flooding in my district, all those stormwater projects he cut look pretty stupid right now," a Florida lawmaker said.
Jun 13, 2024
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on Wednesday for five counties due to heavy flooding in southern Florida just the day after he cut $205 million in stormwater, wastewater, and sewer projects from the state's budget.
Heavy rains caused by a disorganized tropical system have inundated southern and western Florida since Tuesday, bringing more than a foot of rain in places and disrupting road and air travel throughout the area. The Weather Prediction Center (WPC), part of the National Weather Service, put southern Florida under a rare 4 out of 4 high risk of flooding on Thursday as rains were expected to continue there, and warned that it could be "locally catastrophic."
The rains "transformed roads into canals and caused water to seep into homes," CNN reported, while a tow truck driver in Fort Lauderdale told The Associated Press that abandoned cars everywhere reminded him of "zombie movie."
The extreme weather prompted state Sen. Jason Pizzo (D-37) to criticize DeSantis' budget cut.
"As I’m sitting here stuck on a Brightline train because of flooding in my district, all those stormwater projects he cut look pretty stupid right now,” Pizzo told the AP.
DeSantis cut the $205 million from the budget amid other cuts that he made Tuesday in finalizing the state budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year that begins on July 1, Tampa Bay Times reported.
In May, DeSantis signed a bill that removes most references to climate change from state law and streamlines fossil fuel development projects—"Don't Say Climate Change," the bill's critics have called it, including a meteorologist who spoke up against it on air. On the day he signed the legislation, Key West was a record-setting 115°F.
Florida is particularly vulnerable to rising seas and to extreme weather, including hurricanes and tropical storms, made more likely and more intense by climate change.
#Floridians, as you drive through waste-deep water and discover your waterfront property is also fully submersible, remember @GovRonDeSantis prohibits you from uttering the words “climate change” and “global warming.” And it’s not even hurricane season. pic.twitter.com/0s5YQM0jFA
— Sound The Retweet: 🗳 I VOTED HIM OUT (@SOUNDtheRETWEET) June 13, 2024
DeSantis on Wednesday declared emergencies in the counties of Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade, and Sarasota. Two people died and three were injured in a weather-related car accident in Collier County, The New York Times reported. The flooding closed part of Interstate 95 and limited flight schedules at two major airports, Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted that the 2024 hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends on November 30, will be worse than normal.
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Amid Record Heat, Florida Meteorologist Rips GOP 'Don't Say Climate Change' Law
"We implore you to please do your research and know that there are candidates that believe in climate change and that there are solutions, and there are candidates that don't."
May 22, 2024
Amid what's shaping up to be the hottest May on record in Miami, one local South Florida TV meteorologist recently slammed new Republican legislation prohibiting the mention of climate change in state law and implored Floridians to vote for candidates who "believe in climate change" and solutions to the planetary emergency.
The new law, signed last week by Republican Gov. DeSantis, also deprioritizes climate considerations in policy decisions, promotes fossil fuel infrastructure development, and bans the installation of wind turbines in state waters. While signing the bill, the failed 2024 GOP presidential contender said Florida was "restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots."
As South Floridians suffered record-breaking temperatures and a heat index that made it feel as hot as 110°F on Saturday, WTVJ meteorologist Steve MacLaughlin stood before a graphic showing that April was the 11th straight hottest month on record globally and said that Florida's government is "starting to roll back really important climate change legislation and really important climate change language."
This, despite the "record heat, record flooding, record rain, record insurance rates, and the corals are dying all around the state" in recent years, MacLaughlin continued. "The entire world is looking to Florida to lead in climate change and our government is saying that climate change is no longer the priority it once was."
While not mentioning DeSantis by name, MacLaughlin said: "Please keep in mind the most powerful climate change solution is the one you already have in the palm of your hand: the right to vote... We implore you to please do your research and know that there are candidates that believe in climate change and that there are solutions, and there are candidates that don't."
The so-called "Don't Say Climate Change" law signed by DeSantis is but the latest salvo in the right-wing governor's "war on woke" that includes rolling back LGBTQ+, student, migrant, reproductive, protest, First Amendment, and other rights and protections.
As the planetary emergency fuels hotter, more dangerous weather in Florida, DeSantis has also attacked the state's workers by signing a law prohibiting local governments from requiring employers to provide water breaks and other cooling measures.
"Workers in Florida will die in the Florida heat as a result of Gov. DeSantis' signing this bill," Public Citizen worker health and safety advocate Juley Fulcher said after the governor signed the law last month. "Denying any worker access to water or shade in the heat of summer is inhumane and cruel, yet Florida just allowed employers to do exactly that."
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