Catholic charities of the Archdiocese of Miami will close a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children. They will also lay off more than 80 employees after the Trump administration declined to renew an $11 million grant with the agency.
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Catholic Charities: Miami shelter closure, 84 job losses begin May 31
The layoffs will affect all 84 employees at the Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children’s Village is starting May 31, according to an April 27 notice filed under Florida’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act.
The affected workers include 11 case managers, 46 youth care workers, and six clinicians. Employees will receive severance benefits based on their years of experience.
An additional 20 staff members from Catholic Charities will lose their jobs on June 30, said Peter Routsis-Arroyo, the agency’s chief executive officer.
According to Devika Austin, chief administrative officer for Catholic Charities, the agency failed to provide the legally required 60-day notice. This is after the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) decided not to renew its contract.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski announced that the federal government had abruptly ended its 60-year relationship with Catholic Charities to shelter unaccompanied migrant children. Wenski said the funding loss would shut down the agency’s services for unaccompanied minors within three months.
“It is baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence and excellence that Catholic Charities has achieved,” Wenski wrote.
ORR consolidates facilities amid lower migrant child populations, HHS confirms
Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health Services, told the National Catholic Reporter in an email that ORR is closing and consolidating unused facilities. This is as the Trump administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children.
Nixon added that the daily population of unaccompanied children in ORR care stands significantly lower. This is lower than the peak of 22,000 sheltered during the Biden administration.
HHS confirmed that the decision not to renew the contract took place on Feb. 16. The Miami Herald reported on April 15 that ORR notified the agency of the funding termination in late March.
Formerly known as Boys Town, the Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children’s Village can accommodate up to 81 children up to age 17. The shelter traces its roots to the humanitarian effort that assisted 14,000 unaccompanied children who arrived from Cuba during Operation Pedro Pan in the early 1960s.
The village offered counselling, support services, recreational opportunities, legal assistance, and on-site K-12 education. The programme also helps place children in foster care and reunite them with family members.
Meanwhile, the regulator has urged all Irish charities to review their charity registration number use (RCN) in public communications. This is necessary as new legally binding requirements loom under the forthcoming Charities (Amendment) Act