{"id":249608,"date":"2026-04-28T13:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249608\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:40:08","slug":"miami-catholic-charities-laying-off-80-after-government-ends-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249608\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Catholic Charities laying off 80+ after government ends funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

A facility run by the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami is closing after the Trump administration ended a funding program<\/a> for unaccompanied children.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a notice filed in accordance with the Florida Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act<\/a> on April 27. Layoffs will affect 84 employees beginning May 31 at Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children\u2019s Village, and will be permanent. According to the notice, all staff working at the facility were included in the reduction in force.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease be advised that the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Refugee Resettlement terminated its funding contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami,\u201d reads the letter included in the WARN notice, signed by Devika Austin, Chief Administrative Officer at the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to these unforeseen circumstances, the funding for our Refugee Resettlement Program was terminated and Catholic Charities had to make the difficult decision to close the Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children\u2019s Village,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n

Where is the Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children\u2019s Village?<\/p>\n

The Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children\u2019s Village is located at 9525 Sterling Drive in Cutler Bay, Florida.<\/p>\n

Why did the administration say funding wasn’t renewed?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)<\/a>, under the Department of Health and Human Services, has been a long-time source of funding for the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami under the\u00a0unaccompanied children program<\/a>. The Catholic Charities received $11 million from HHS in fiscal year 2025, according to federal spending data, but the award ended as of March 31.<\/p>\n

Thomas Wenski, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Miami, asked for the decision to be reviewed in an April 16 opinion piece\u00a0published to the organization\u2019s website<\/a>. In it, he wrote that the archdiocese has worked with the ORR since 1960 to provide shelter, among other services, to unaccompanied minor children.<\/p>\n

Wenski added that the Catholic Charities of Miami would be forced to end their services caring for unaccompanied children immigrating to the U.S. if funding was not restored within three months.<\/p>\n

HHS press secretary Emily Hilliard said the number of unaccompanied children in ORR care dropped under the Trump administration when asked about the decision to end the funding.<\/p>\n

“ORR is closing and consolidating unused facilities as the Trump Administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children,” Hilliard said. The decision not to renew the contract took place on Feb. 16, according to HHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply grateful for your contributions and service to Catholic Charities and in particular the children and families that we have served at the Children\u2019s Village,\u201d the WARN notice read. \u201cWe share in your disappointment. We are committed to supporting you during this transition and will do our best to provide resources and assistance as you move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Archdiocese of Miami did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.<\/p>\n

Sarah Perkel is a South Florida Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Connect team. You can get all of Florida\u2019s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miami Catholic Charities has mass layoffs after Trump admin ends funds<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A facility run by the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami is closing after the Trump administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49720,109336,13452,14851,123,125,124,105247,105244],"class_list":["post-249608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-archdiocese-of-miami","tag-bryan-walsh","tag-catholic-charities","tag-funding","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-office-of-refugee-resettlement","tag-unaccompanied-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}