WASHINGTON (RNS) — A House hearing called to examine the Biden White House’s immigration policy and the actions of nonprofits that aid migrants — including faith-based groups — devolved into partisan chaos on Wednesday (July 17), as Democrats accused Republicans of attacking religious organizations and Republicans fractured over whether to target Catholic Charities and other faith groups.
The Homeland Security Committee hearing, titled “An Inside Job: How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis,” is part of a broader effort targeting nonprofit groups that have long offered aid to immigrants. A small cadre of Republicans and right-wing influencers have argued for years that faith-based nonprofits that offer temporary aid to immigrants after they have been processed by Customs and Border Protection promote illegal immigration. These allegations have led to threats against staffers at Catholic Charities, a group that came up often at Wednesday’s hearing.
The claim has been widely rejected by the religious organizations, whose work is typically done under a federally funded partnership with the government.
Most recently, on June 11, Reps. Mark E. Green of Tennessee, then chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma announced plans to probe more than 200 nongovernmental organizations they accused of being “involved in providing services or support to inadmissible aliens during the Biden-Harris administration’s historic border crisis.” A press release announcing the investigation singled out the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities and the Lutheran group Global Refuge.
Several denominations and faith-based agencies say they have since received letters asking them about their actions under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Green, who has resigned from his congressional seat, effective Sunday, was not present and thus did not lead the meeting.
Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., speaks during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, titled “An Inside Job: How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis,” July 17, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
At Wednesday’s hearing, its conveners tried to reprise these sentiments but had a difficult time keeping the focus on actions they attributed to the Biden administration. Democrats repeatedly brought up the work of religious groups as “the Lord’s work,” in the words of Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, who was detained outside of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in May and has since been charged with assaulting and interfering with immigration officers. (She has pleaded not guilty.)
In his opening remarks, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said, “Mr. Chairman, my Republican colleagues and the Trump administration are waging a war on faith in civil society in the United States.”
Republicans on the committee appeared divided over whether to attempt to call religious groups to account. In his own opening remarks, acting Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, said he took offense at Thompson’s characterization. “I have mentioned nothing in my statement about nonprofits such as the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Samaritan’s Purse, Doctors Without Borders — nonprofits who actually take money and use it for good,” said Guest.
Instead, Guest insisted, the hearing was “focused on those handful of nonprofits who received their money almost exclusively from grants from the federal government.”
Others Republicans avoided talk of religious groups altogether, and some made a point to speak kindly about Catholic bishops. Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida called himself a “really good friend” of Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, saying the two regularly dine together.
But Giménez also suggested there are “bad apples” among Catholic nonprofits, without specifying which ones, and other members of the committee and some of the witnesses called to testify weren’t willing to let Catholic Charities off the hook.
“We’re talking about the NGOs that are used as middlemen to carry out their operations, like the Catholic Charities, they (are) used to facilitate, normalize and accelerate illegal immigration into this country,” said Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, left, questions a witness during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, titled “An Inside Job: How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis,” July 17, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Democrats, meanwhile, rushed to defend Catholic Charities and its work under the Biden administration. Rep. Al Green of Texas at one point rejected a claim from one of the day’s witnesses that the Biden administration did not respond to thousands of calls expressing concerns about unaccompanied immigrant children.
“I’m going to defend Catholic Charities,” said Green, the Democrat. “I don’t believe you think that Catholic Charities would have 65,000 children mistreated. I just don’t believe you think that. I don’t think so. Catholic Charities does an outstanding job.”
Lutherans were another target of the panel, as Rep. Sheri Biggs of South Carolina called Global Refuge, a Lutheran agency that until recently was called Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of several “Trojan horses” in the NGO field. Former Trump administration national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn has accused the group in the past of money laundering.
Amid the back-and-forth, Democrats tried to introduce motions to subpoena Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE; and Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, among other Trump administration officials, but their motions were tabled or voted down.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., center, questions witnesses during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, titled “An Inside Job: How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis,” July 17, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
The subpoena motions, however, led to disagreements over procedure, as Republicans chairing the hearing “suspended” the meeting rather than lose votes because committee members on their side had been called away for procedural votes. Democrats vigorously objected, arguing the committee chair does not have the power to suspend a meeting simply to delay a vote, and pointing out that there was no move to suspend the meeting when Democrats were absent.
“If we are following the rules of the committee, what you’re doing is not in the rules,” Thompson said, looking visibly aghast.
Guest declined to restart the meeting, saying in response, “Your point has been made, and is in the record.”
Members of the committee also referenced a number of other topics, such as ICE agents wearing masks, the detention of U.S. citizen children and the deaths of dozens due to flooding in Texas. At one point, a Democratic lawmaker and a witness began shouting at each other over the potential release of files related to disgraced financier and sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats returned repeatedly to tensions between Republicans and the religious nonprofits, praising the work of faith groups and framing the GOP as anti-faith.
Rep. Tim Kennedy of New York, a Catholic Democrat, said the hearing, coming as tensions over immigration policy have erupted between Catholic bishops and the Trump administration, “reeks of anti-Catholicism.” Other Democrats tried to add to the Republicans’ discomfort by repeatedly citing criticism of President Donald Trump’s border policies by the late Pope Francis and by Pope Leo XIV, and Thompson entered a statement from Bishop Robert John Brennan of New York about immigration into the record.
In the end, Catholic Charities USA chose to welcome the wealth of praise that emerged rather than the criticisms. In a statement after the hearing ended, the agency, an umbrella organization speaking on behalf of more than 150 independent Catholic Charities agencies, said, “we appreciate the bipartisan compliments directed during this hearing at the merciful work of Catholic Charities agencies.”