Lawyers for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told a judge Friday that the State Department’s move to cancel a contract for refugee resettlement is “unlawful” and should be overturned.
The argument came just one day after the State Department abruptly canceled a longstanding refugee services contract with the bishops’ conference, amid a USCCB lawsuit over back pay and a freeze on federal migration dollars.
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In a Feb. 27 filing from the USCCB, lawyers responded to a same-day notification from the State Department, which said it had terminated its agreements with the conference to provide legally-required resettlement services to refugees.
The bishops’ lawyers argued Friday that the termination “doubles down on [the government’s] unlawful refusal to comply with its statutory and regulatory obligations,” and aims “to end funding for thousands of refugees who have already arrived and been placed in USCCB’s programs.”
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TAKE ACTION: Contact USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio at tpbroglio@milarch.org or 202-719-3600 and let him know what you think.