U.S. bishops end lawsuit against Trump administration over refugee resettlement

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has ended its lawsuit against the Trump administration over the suspension of a long-running refugee resettlement contract, with monies owed to the USCCB now recovered.

Court records show that Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia signed a Jan. 23 order dismissing the case “without prejudice” — allowing the USCCB the option to bring a subsequent suit on the same grounds.

The USCCB had filed a Jan. 22 notice of voluntary dismissal, stating that “no defendant has filed either an answer or a motion for summary judgment in this action.”

Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the USCCB, confirmed to OSV News Feb. 24 that the conference had recovered what it was owed for its refugee resettlement work with the federal government.

As of April 2025, those funds — still unpaid at the time — amounted to more than $24 million.

According to the court docket, the USCCB had requested a stay in the case in July 2025, stating both parties had “entered into an agreement to wind down” the conference’s participation in the government’s refugee resettlement program.

“A stay would be appropriate while the parties navigate that process before determining what, if any, disputed issues remain unable to be resolved,” said the USCCB in its request, which also cited “resource savings” for both parties and the court.

The USCCB said the two sides would “submit periodic status reports” to the court, which it would notify “if the parties are unable to resolve any outstanding claims through this wind-down process.”

Status reports were filed in September and November, according to the docket report.

The USCCB brought suit against the federal government on Feb. 18, 2025, after the Trump administration’s Jan. 24, 2025, suspension of the conference’s contract under the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program.

USRAP had been established by Congress in 1980 as a domestic program that formalized the process for legally resettling federally vetted refugees, working with other government entities, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations such as the Catholic Church

The USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services was one of 10 national resettlement agencies working with USRAP.

In its lawsuit, the USCCB had described the suspension as “unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees,” and as “a textbook arbitrary-and-capricious agency action” that “violates multiple statutes” and “undermines the Constitution’s separation of powers.”

The conference was forced to lay off about a third of its MRS staff as a result of the contract suspension.

The USCCB announced in April 2025 that it would not renew its cooperative agreements with the federal government related to children’s services and refugee support, saying its longstanding partnerships in those areas had become “untenable.”

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