Catholic Charities Fort Worth, which has led refugee resettlement in Texas since 2021, could lay off 169 employees as early as Friday.
The charity, which operates the Texas Office for Refugees, filed a notice March 10 with the Texas Workforce Commission’s Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification, also known as WARN. The federal government requires employers to give 60 calendar days’ advance notice of a mass layoff to affected employees and government entities.
The notice listed its layoff date as March 14. Catholic Charities Fort Worth, which employs nearly 400 people across 28 counties, declined to comment.
The filing comes days after the organization sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing the federal government of unlawfully withholding more than $36 million in refugee resettlement funds since Jan. 29. That number rose to $42 million as of March 4, according to recent court filings.
A group of nine Texas Congressional Democrats submitted a letter to Health and Human Services leaders Thursday demanding the release of the funding and said the Texas Office for Refugees could close as soon as March 15 without immediate action. Two North Texas representatives — Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, and Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas — signed the letter.
“If funding is not restored immediately, hundreds of thousands of refugees across the state could be permanently left without crucial medical services, basic shelter, and legal support,” the letter reads.
Other affiliates of Catholic Charities in Dallas, Houston and Galveston have implemented a series of layoffs since an executive order pausing funding to refugee resettlement organizations took effect in January.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the effort Jan. 25. The Trump administration rescinded the order Jan. 29 after an outcry against the move, which would have paused most federal grants and loans.
Catholic Charities argues that many other organizations received their federal funds in the weeks since the attempted freeze. In their response to the lawsuit, U.S. attorneys acknowledged that of the 50 jurisdictions where the federal government funds refugee services, only the grant in Texas — administered by Catholic Charities Fort Worth — remains paused.
“These funds, mandated by law for organizations contracted by the federal government to care for these individuals and families, are crucial for providing essential services to those fleeing persecution in their home countries,” Michael Iglio, Catholic Charities CEO, and Jeff Demers, state refugee coordinator of the Texas Office for Refugees, said in a March 3 statement.
Government says it selected Catholic Charities for ‘integrity review’
The government cites a Feb. 3 department directive that instructed all Health and Human Services personnel to briefly pause all payments to contractors, vendors and grantees related to immigration and refugee resettlement so the agency could conduct “internal review.”
Andrew Gradison, the agency’s acting assistant secretary for children and families, said in a March 12 declaration that he looked at all refugee resettlement grants to determine what required further review. Catholic Charities Fort Worth was selected for a “program integrity review.”
In a March 7 filing, the government said it flagged organizations for an integrity review based on whether the organizations “billed for activities that were outside the scope” of its grants and whether the grants were structured to pay for activities that exceeded the requirements of the Refugee Act of 1980.
Government lawyers say the pause — and subsequent review of Catholic Charities — was inspired by a March 2023 Florida grand jury report that explored abuse and fraud in an unaccompanied migrant program unrelated to refugee resettlement services.
Government attorneys argued the Department of Health and Human Services did not violate any laws by pausing payments and said the move was “far from unusual.” Staff expect to complete the review in a “matter of days,” according to the March 7 filing. The program integrity review remains ongoing as of March 13, when the federal government last updated a judge about its work.
Catholic Charities: Nothing about pause is ‘normal — in any form’
In court filings, Catholic Charities Fort Worth lawyers say they were never notified of the review and argued that it made repeated requests for information regarding the status of the charity’s requests for funds, alleging that “defendants offered no information or explanation prior to CCFW bringing this case.”
The charity’s lawyers argued that the millions “now frozen for over six weeks on funds typically dispersed within days” is “not only arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful, but demonstrably pretextual, according to court documents. In a legal context, “pretextual” describes a reason or explanation offered to mask or hide a true, often illegal or improper, motive or action. It essentially means a false or deceptive justification.
“In short, none of the circumstances described above are normal — in any form,” Catholic Charities Fort Worth lawyers wrote in a March 10 response.
Catholic Charities Fort Worth is now asking the court to grant a temporary restraining order, preventing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from continuing to withhold funds.
Haley Samsel is content editor for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.
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