MIAMI — The Trump administration’s decision to abruptly cancel an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami to shelter and care for unaccompanied migrant children is drawing a raft of criticism from South Florida political and religious leaders – including members of the president’s own party.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski confirmed this week that the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement has terminated an agreement in which the church operated a federal foster care program for migrant children who entered the U.S. alone and undocumented. Many of the youngsters were placed in foster homes, group homes and shelters until they were able to move in with approved family members, if at all.

It’s the longest-running program of its kind in the country.

“Nobody’s told us why we weren’t re-funded. But I think it’s a little bit of political gamesmanship,” Wenski said Thursday, pointing to the Catholic Church’s immigration advocacy in the backdrop of the national dialogue around border security.

The federal government notified the Archdiocese it would terminate the nearly 70-year partnership on March 25, only days before public tensions emerged between the Vatican’s first American-born pope – who has made compassion for migrants a cornerstone of his ministry – and President Donald Trump, who has made them a target of his wrath.

Trump has accused the pontiff of being “weak” on crime fighting. Pope Leo XIV has criticized the U.S. bombing campaign in Iran.

In a statement to the Miami Herald, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the contract’s termination reflects nothing more than the administration’s dramatic reduction in unauthorized migration, from a daily population of 1,900 now compared to a peak of 22,000 children during the Biden administration.

“The entire Trump Administration – including [Homeland Security advisor] Stephen Miller – has worked tirelessly to implement the President’s agenda, secure the Southern Border, and stop the Biden Administration’s disastrous policies that put countless unaccompanied minors at risk,” Jackson wrote.

She added: “This bizarre attack is not only totally false, but misses the broader point that unaccompanied minors are not making the dangerous journey across the border and that the Trump Administration has solved another Biden crisis – anyone with any common sense would know that’s a good thing.”

Two members of Congress from Miami-Dade, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar and Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez, wrote to the U.S. Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Refugee Resettlement asking leaders to reinstate the contract.

“South Florida has always been the frontline of humanitarian migration in our hemisphere,” Salazar and Gimenez, both Republicans, wrote. “History shows that when crisis hits the region, it arrives in Miami first.”

“Cuba is facing its most severe crisis in decades, with widespread blackouts, food and fuel shortages, economic collapse, and growing civil unrest. These conditions historically trigger sudden migration surges, often including unaccompanied minors,” the two representatives wrote. “At the same time, Haiti continues to descend into instability, with escalating gang violence, breakdown of government authority, and a worsening humanitarian crisis that is forcing families to flee. The combination of these crises creates a high likelihood of a near-term influx into South Florida. Reducing capacity in the very region most likely to receive these arrivals is not cost-effective, it is a strategic mistake.”

They added: “Catholic Charities provides what cannot be quickly replaced: trained staff, proven infrastructure, and decades of expertise.”

Catholic Charities’ relief program for migrant youth has its roots in Operation Pedro Pan, which began as a clandestine mission to relocate the children of Cuban dissidents at the outset of the revolution which brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959. The iconic airlift, which came to include ordinary Cuban families in search of freedom and a better life, rescued 14,000 children. About half of them ended up in the care of the Catholic Church.

The Pedro Pans, as they are often called, were woven into the fabric of Miami’s culture. Many of the children rose to be members of the city’s business, political, academic, professional and religious elites. Former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, a Miami Republican, entered the U.S. on a Pedro Pan airlift.

“The assistance we received will always be remembered,” said Pedro Pan Group Inc., the national charity founded by former unaccompanied Cuban children in 1991, in a letter to the Trump administration on April 8. The group called the stripping of funding “both shocking and deeply concerning.”

“We respectfully ask you to reconsider your decision,” wrote the group.

Reacting to a story in the Herald Tuesday about the contract, state Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami Republican who served as deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration, blamed the conflict on Miller, who is the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor.

Miller is widely viewed as the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, which involves making life so unbearable for migrants in the United States that they voluntarily return to their country of origin.

In a tartly worded post on the “X” social media platform, Garcia said Miller had been obsessed with removing migrant children since Trump’s first term. Miller, she said, “has been fixated on the issue of unaccompanied minors for a long time. This situation presented an ideal opportunity for him.

“His motivation isn’t about whether these children are trafficked or not,” she added. “He simply doesn’t want them in the United States.”

“He believes he’s shaping the ideal American,” Garcia wrote. “His contempt for non-white individuals reveals his true character.”

©2026 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.