Trump-Vance White House Targets Beloved Nun in Texas, Retaliates Against Catholic Charities
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley — praised by Pope Leo as an “agent of hope” — now faces a six-year federal funding ban. Church leaders say it’s a vendetta by the Trump-Vance White House.
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It started with ICE agents haunting church parking lots. It might end with padlocks on Catholic shelter doors.
Over the past year, the Trump-Vance White House has ratcheted up a campaign against the Catholic Church’s work with immigrants.
The latest target is Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley (CCRGV) in South Texas, which runs a famed humanitarian respite center for migrant families.
The Department of Homeland Security has suspended this Catholic charity from all federal funding and moved to debar it for six years — an unusually harsh penalty.
DHS claims an audit found “pervasive” grant reporting violations, like inconsistent migrant records and billing outside allowed timeframes.
Officials accuse the charity, led by Sister Norma Pimentel, of mishandling data so badly they couldn’t verify if some people served had ever appeared in DHS databases.
Sister Norma, nationally known as the immigrants’ nun, flatly rejects any suggestion of wrongdoing.
“Those on the front lines of our humanitarian outreach know the work we do truly helps to restore human dignity,” she said, adding that she “takes very seriously every single dollar entrusted to us.”
Her team notes that every person they aid has been processed and released by U.S. Border Patrol — they are simply caring for folks whom the government itself brought to the shelter.
CCRGV has pledged to work with DHS to resolve any concerns.
Yet the Trump-Vance White House barreled ahead with a suspension that could choke off the ministry’s primary resources within weeks.
Why such a heavy-handed response against America’s most beloved nun? Here’s why.
