A major Catholic bishops group had filed a lawsuit against the government earlier this week.
A federal judge in Washington on Thursday declined to immediately block a Trump administration rule that rescinded funding to a refugee resettlement program, after a major Catholic organization challenged the plan in a lawsuit this week.
Judge Trevor McFadden denied U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB’s) request for a temporary restraining order that would have restored the funding but called his ruling “very tentative.”
“A temporary restraining order is an extraordinary remedy that should be granted sparingly,” he said in a hearing on Thursday.
McFadden scheduled another hearing for next week on the USCCB’s separate request for a preliminary injunction, which would also block the administration’s pause in program funding. He also ordered the two sides to have a mediation session with a federal magistrate judge next week.
“I want to see further briefing from the parties,” McFadden told the court.
Earlier in the week, the Catholic group filed a suit against the Trump administration saying the plan to rescind resettlement funding would put 6,700 admitted refugees who were assigned to a program at risk. With the pause in funding, the USCCB said, it would be on the hook for millions in incurred costs, which it said was in violation of federal law.
“As a direct result of the suspension, USCCB has millions of dollars in pending, unpaid reimbursements for services already rendered to refugees and is accruing millions more each week—with no indication that any future reimbursements will be paid or that the program will ever resume,” its lawsuit said, adding it “has already been forced to initiate layoffs for fifty employees.”
If a judge does not act to reverse the administration’s plans, the USCCB would face “irreparable damage to its longstanding refugee resettlement programs and its reputation and relationship with its subrecipients and the refugee populations it serves,” the suit states.
Named in the lawsuit are the departments of State and Health and Human Services and their respective secretaries, Marco Rubio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, respectively.
The Department of State on Jan. 24 sent a letter to the USCCB and other NGOs informing them of an immediate suspension of funding pending a review of foreign aid programs..
Department of Justice attorney Joseph Carilli Jr., arguing on behalf of the Trump administration, said on Thursday that the United States cannot bring in additional refugees and that the spending halt would allow it to align funding with the president’s priorities. He said a delay in reimbursing the conference doesn’t mean the administration is violating the terms of its cooperation agreement.
“It doesn’t say they will be reimbursed on a certain timeline,” Carilli said.
Department heads under the Trump administration have indicated that they will rescind funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that they say facilitate illegal immigration into the United States. The USCCB is one of 10 NGOs that handle refugees, according to the group’s website.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance earlier this month offered criticism of mainstream Catholic groups and NGOs, accusing them of not being a “good partner in commonsense immigration enforcement” during a Fox News interview. Some of the groups, he said, took in about $100 million “to resettle illegal immigrants” in the country.
Vance and President Donald Trump both signaled during their 2024 election campaign that the administration would initiate a plan to mass deport illegal aliens and crack down on border crossings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.