The Trump administration is pulling federal funding from Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which operates a McAllen migrant shelter. <\/p>\n
The South Texas charity is part of Catholic Charities USA and is a branch of the Diocese of Brownsville. Its executive director, Sister Norma Pimentel, has become known globally for her advocacy work for migrants.<\/p>\n
Pimentel, who founded the migrant shelter in 2014 and has run it since, was considered one of Time Magazine\u2019s \u201c100 Most Influential People of 2020<\/a>\u201d and received a medallion of excellence from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in 2023. During Pope Frances\u2019 reign, she was considered the \u201cPope\u2019s Favorite Nun<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n But as of last month, the organization has been barred from receiving federal funds for six years, according to documents the government shared with Fox News<\/a>, after the Department of Homeland Security said an investigation found multiple grant violations, such as inconsistent records on migrants. <\/p>\n The audit also found nearly 250 instances in which the nonprofit used federal funds outside of the 45-day window allowed after a migrant is released, according to Fox News. <\/p>\n In a statement<\/a>, CCRGV said it was using federal funds to help migrants brought to them by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, \u201cindividuals who were released by CBP with a document that gave them permission to travel to their points of destination.\u201d <\/p>\n The organization did not respond to a request for comment. It\u2019s unclear how much the charity depends on federal funds to run its operations, but its statement said it \u201cremains committed to serve each person who comes seeking our help with respect and compassion.\u201d <\/p>\n The shelter provides migrants released from federal custody a range of services, such as showers, meals and clothes, serving as a rest stop before they continue to other destinations in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cThose on the front lines of our humanitarian outreach know the work we do truly helps restore human dignity,\u201d Pimentel said in the statement. \u201cI take very seriously every single dollar entrusted to us.\u201d <\/p>\n The organization said it\u2019s committed to complying with federal grant requirements and is working to become eligible to receive funding again. <\/p>\n When the charity commemorated its decade of operations last year, Pimentel told Border Report<\/a> that it has served over 500,000 migrants. <\/p>\n A few months ago, a House investigation \u2014 led by U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, also a member of the committee \u2014 probed more than 200 organizations<\/a> they accused of \u201cproviding services or support to inadmissible aliens during the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s historic border crisis.\u201d <\/p>\n Four organizations were listed as the investigation\u2019s priority, including Catholic Charities USA. The others were the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Global Refuge, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the latter of which is the focus of a criminal investigation<\/a> recently launched by Gov. Greg Abbott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is pulling federal funding from Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which operates a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4092,41111,1478,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-85888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-department-of-homeland-security","9":"tag-hidalgo-county","10":"tag-mcallen","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}