USCCB Outsourcing Catholic Immigration Policy to Progressive Catholic Institutions

Following USAID cuts, a network of Catholic university-based advocacy groups, staffed by USCCB and Biden-admin alumni, enables the bishops to continue advancing porous border initiatives.

For decades, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops played an unmistakably political role in national immigration debates, issuing forceful policy statements, lobbying Congress, running public relations trips to the U.S.-Mexican border for bishops, and positioning its Migration and Refugee Services office as a progressive, often strident voice on immigration in Washington. Those days are over.  Last February the bishops’ conference cut 50 positions—about one‑third of the staff in its migration and refugee services office—after federal reimbursements for contracted refugee and migrant resettlement work were suspended.

Today, the USCCB appears to be attempting to rebrand itself as a less‑political actor, emphasizing humanitarian service and pastoral care rather than policy confrontation. Whether the USCCB will be successful in its effort to recast itself remains to be seen.

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