U.S. bishops recover refugee resettlement funds, end lawsuit against State Department

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recovered money that it says the U.S. Department of State owed the conference for refugee resettlement and voluntarily ended its lawsuit against the department.

According to court records, Judge Trevor N. McFadden dismissed the lawsuit on Jan. 23, one day after the bishops requested the federal District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss it.

“The government has reimbursed the USCCB for all services and costs associated with the programs, and the conference has no remaining monetary losses related to the activities at issue in the lawsuit,” USCCB spokesperson Chieko Noguchi told EWTN News, without stating the exact dollar amount paid.

President Donald Trump’s administration froze State Department payments for refugee resettlement services in January 2025. The following month, the State Department sent “notice of termination” letters, which instructed the USCCB, its affiliates, and other organizations participating in the programs to halt all work.

The bishops then sued the State Department, asking the court to force the department to honor those contracts.

At the time, the USCCB had contracts worth about $65 million. The bishops said in April that the government still owed them more than $24 million for work that was already finished. In July, the USCCB asked the court to pause the lawsuit after both parties reached an agreement on winding down the refugee resettlement work.

The contracts were never reinstated.

“The USCCB completed the process for winding down the work done as part of the cooperative grant agreements with the federal government,” Noguchi said. “The government has now paid the amounts owed to the conference for the essential services that were provided to newly arrived refugees placed in our care, and the case has been dismissed.”

The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, which means the bishops could try to bring another case against the State Department if they wanted to do so.

USCCB refugee resettlement work

Prior to the Trump administration’s policy changes, the USCCB had partnered with the State Department on refugee resettlement for about four and a half decades.

During President Joe Biden’s administration, the federal government provided the USCCB with more than $100 million most years, which was redirected to affiliated Catholic organizations that directly provided the services. During Trump’s first term, the USCCB received more than $45 million annually each year.

In most recent years, federal money accounted for more than 95% of the costs for the refugee resettlement programs the USCCB provided money for.

The USCCB announced in April that it was not seeking to renew its contracts amid the Trump policy changes and called that decision “difficult” at the time.

“While this marks a painful end to a life-sustaining partnership with our government that has spanned decades across administrations of both political parties, it offers every Catholic an opportunity to search our hearts for new ways to assist,” then-USCCB President Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio said in an April 7, 2025, statement.

Trump has drastically reduced the number of refugees admitted into the United States. For fiscal 2026, the number of refugees that can enter the country is capped at 7,500. This stands in stark contrast with the Biden administration, which admitted nearly 200,000 refugees over four years.