President Donald Trump has shut off the funding spigot to Biden-era initiatives and charity organizations that quietly carved out “fast-track” pathways for migrants to enter the American homeland.
On his first day back in the White House, the Republican president signed an executive order that placed a funding freeze on development assistance to foreign countries and the involved nonprofit organizations, arguing that such funding needs to be better aligned with U.S. foreign policy interests. That order had a monumental impact on one major nonprofit, in particular, and also a migration initiative created by the previous administration.
Launched in 2023 by President Joe Biden, the Safe Mobility Initiative established numerous brick-and-mortar buildings across Latin America, known as Safe Mobility Offices (SMOs), that allowed asylum seekers to apply to enter the U.S. This $80 million program proved to be incredibly popular with migrants, with a House Judiciary report finding that more than a quarter million migrants were allowed to register for potential entry into the U.S. within the first 15 months of the initiative.
House Judiciary Republicans investigating the Safe Mobility Initiative in 2024 argued it was specifically designed to “fast-track” migrants into the U.S., providing them a new pathway into the country without having to add to the chaotic scenes taking place at the southern border. The program paid foreign national employees millions to help coach migrants on how to reach the interior of the U.S.
“Following a decision by the US government, the Safe Mobility Initiative is no longer active,” reads a notice on the front-page of the program’s website, which also notes that no new applications will be accepted and for those already referred for resettlement to standby for further updates.
The Biden administration opened the first SMOs in June 2023 and continued to expand with new locations throughout Central and South America. These processing centers, working in coordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), allowed foreign nationals the opportunity to apply to migrate legally into the U.S.
However, critics of the initiative began pointing out that the Biden administration was simply creating an expedited run-around for more migrants to enter the U.S.
“Under President Biden, the State Department has announced its Safe Mobility Offices initiative, which allows illegal aliens to bypass the southwest border and, according to UNHCR, ‘avoid the risks associated with onward movement,’” House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan wrote to UNHCR in June 2024. “In other words, this new program fast-tracks aliens into the United States out of sight of the American people and without public transparency of the chaos at the border.”
A Mixed Migration Centre survey released in March 2024 showed 90% of SMO users wanted to reach the U.S. for economic opportunities — rather than fleeing persecution or war, which is the purpose of the refugee resettlement system.
The House Judiciary Committee later eviscerated the initiative in a report published in the waning days of the Biden administration, confirming that the program was spending millions of American taxpayer dollars to help thousands of migrants in Central and South America enter the U.S.
American taxpayers funded SMOs in 13 different cities across Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Costa Rica, according to the House report. More than 18,000 migrants from South and Central America departed for resettlement in the U.S. via the Safe Mobility Initiative, with roughly 67,000 total foreign nationals referred to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for possible resettlement into the country.
U.S. taxpayers altogether spent more than $80 million funding SMOs, with this funding being split between the UNHCR and the IOM, according to the Judiciary Committee. The committee additionally confirmed that SMO staffers would also counsel migrants previously deemed ineligible to enter the U.S. as refugees on other strategies to make it into the country.
“Only 14 percent of IOM employees devoted to the Safe Mobility Initiative are U.S. citizens, however, meaning that the Biden-Harris Administration uses U.S. taxpayer dollars to pay foreign national employees of the United Nations to counsel other foreign nationals on the best ways to enter the United States,” the report stated.
Biden launched the initiative in the middle of what the worst year on record for unlawful border encounters. His administration made other attempts to quell the sky-high levels of illegal immigration by creating alternate avenues for otherwise-inadmissible migrants to enter the U.S., such as the CHNV program and the dramatic expansion of the CBP One app.
The Trump administration also took an axe to the non-profits accused of fomenting the illegal immigration crisis. The president’s order freezing foreign assistance came to the chagrin of organizations like Catholic Charities USA, which have long been accused of enabling illegal immigration.
“Today we are announcing that we have stopped all grant funding that’s being abused by NGOs to facilitate illegal immigration into this country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in January. “So it’s amazing to me the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent by the federal government that has been sent to NGOs to facilitate this invasion of our country.”
“I think people are curious when we look at grants that are given out by federal agencies at how they’re utilized, and that evaluation needs to be done,” Noem added.
“We’re not spending another dime to help the destruction of this country.”
Catholic Charities USA and its affiliate organizations have been heavily involved in facilitating immigration and refugee resettlement into the U.S. over the years — with the help of the American taxpayer. From 2023-2024, the group and its affiliates received more than $5 million in federal grants, according to Catholic Culture.
Catholic Charities Southern Ohio, for example, partners with the State Department for Refugee Resettlement, with one of its main sources of revenue being government fees and grants. The group in January 2024 opened a facility providing legal advocacy and other immigration services in Springfield, Ohio, a town so inundated with Haitian migrants that local leaders begged the federal government for assistance.
Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio received millions in federal funding in 2024 to provide migrant services, largely through its Migrant Resource Center located near the southern border. The organization, however, was blasted by lawmakers in Washington, D.C., for allegedly using taxpayer money to cover the cost of airline tickets for migrants.
When asked by the Daily Caller if the president intended to permanently cut funding to organizations like Catholic Charities that have helped bring illegal migrants into the U.S., White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she was “quite certain” Trump’s executive order did just that.
Catholic Charities USA President and CEO Kerry Alys Robinson begged the administration in a public statement to reconsider its funding freeze, claiming that its work provides essential services. The organization did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“For more than a century, the Catholic Charities network has worked with the government to care for poor and vulnerable people in every community in the U.S., and we continue to be eager to work with government to care for our neighbors in need,” Robinson wrote in January. “We strongly urge the administration to rethink this decision.”
Trump’s decision to freeze foreign assistance spending has put a stop to other seemingly-frivolous spending on migrant services. A Lebanese gender specialist was just about to launch a U.S.-funded program providing mental health services to LBGTQ Venezuelan youths living in Colombia, but was told the initiative was defunded just as she arrived in Bogota, according to The Associated Press.
Featured Image Credit: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Washington D.C, United States
