14-03-2025
Amid lawsuit, feds say they will end funding freeze on Texas refugee services
A mysterious six-week freeze on Texas refugee service funds may have reached its end.
In a Friday afternoon hearing at a federal district court, a lawyer for the Department of Health and Human Services said reimbursements to the Texas Office for Refugees, a nonprofit that distributes payments to local service providers, are on track to resume. The Office for Refugee Resettlement, which reviews refugee service reimbursements, is under the Administration for Children and Families in the health department.
In court documents, the health department had argued it needed to suspend payments because it was still conducting a review on the office. Texas was the only state that still had a suspension on refugee services funds.
Previously: Casar, Doggett and other Texas Democrats demand release of $42M in federal refugee funds
Due to that suspension, Texas refugee service providers had rolled back on the English classes, job training and cash assistance programs offered to thousands of refugees and other authorized migrants. They had also furloughed and laid off hundreds of staff.
Edward Waters, the lawyer representing Catholic Charities, said that the Texas Office for Refugees estimated that 85% of staff working for providers had been furloughed or laid off since the freeze began. He also told the court that $47 million had been withheld from Texas refugee organizations to date.
But, in a surprised tone, Waters said that his clients were 'hopeful that it will now be business as usual.'
'But hopeful is not definitive,' he added, before asking the presiding U.S. district judge, Loren AliKhan, to hold off on a ruling until payments resumed.
AliKhan called the government's announcement, which could put a close to proceedings, 'very happy news.' She asked for the two parties to file a 'joint status report' describing the process made resuming reimbursements by Monday.
The announcement comes almost two weeks after Catholic Charities of Fort Worth sued the health department, demanding it release payments and give a reason for why it had frozen the funds.
It also comes one day after Texas Congressional Democrats published a letter calling on DHHS to release Texas' refugee funds and offer an explanation for the freeze.
Related: Refugees in Austin, across Texas, still struggling amid mysterious pause in federal funding
Court documents showed that a Trump administration directive suspended payments to refugee service providers on Feb. 3, citing a Florida grand jury report. The report identified waste and fraud in an unaccompanied minor program, which was also managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement but unrelated to refugee services.
In the weeks after that directive, payments resumed to refugee service agencies in all 49 states that have programs, except for Texas. The government has not given a reason for Texas' uniquely prolonged hold.
Neither the Texas Office for Refugees, Catholic Charities Fort Worth, nor the law firm representing these organizations responded to a request for comment on Friday afternoon.
Shortly after the hearing, Anjum Malik, the director of an Austin refugee services nonprofit, told the American-Statesman that she was trying "to air on the side of caution" about the government's comments at the hearing, but that she believes "it's probably good news."
But Malik said she remains nervous that future disruptions could wreak additional havoc to a system that has been weakened dramatically by uncertainty and austerity in the past weeks.
It's hard to know what to expect, she said.
This story was updated to include new information.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Freeze on Texas refugee service funds now over, DOJ lawyer says
