A Catholic charity in Texas is refuting claims by U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that emergency funds are being misused to purchase plane tickets for migrants.
Catholic Charities of San Antonio, which is a little more than 150 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, was scrutinized last week by two South Texas members of Congress, Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat, and Representative Monica De La Cruz, a Republican, who accused the organization of using taxpayer dollars tied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to transport asylum seekers via air travel to other locations.
Jose Antonio Fernandez, CEO of the San Antonio-based archdiocese, told Catholic News Agency (CNA) that his nonprofit has provided airline transportation to migrants but asserts it's within FEMA's rules associated with the Emergency Food and Shelter Program.
No such transportation has been offered since the end of last year, he added.
"The funds were given to us to provide food, clothing, all these activities, including transportation," said Fernandez, the archdiocese CEO since 2013. "It's not my interpretation, it is a fact; many companies in the U.S. provide transportation because it is allowed. If you contact FEMA, they will tell you that, yes, you are actually allowed to provide transportation."
Newsweek reached out to Catholic Charities and FEMA via email for comment.
Both lawmakers previously told Border Report that FEMA funds are intended to reimburse nonprofits and municipalities for food, shelter and humanitarian expenses—not airline transportation that politicians claim the charity is using to draw illegal migrants into San Antonio because they know they can travel elsewhere while their asylum proceedings are being adjudicated by federal authorities.
Part of the reason migrants want to come to the city, Cuellar said, is because of such transportation. He said he spoke with Holding Institute, a nonprofit in his hometown of Laredo that provides humanitarian care and shelter for migrants legally released by the Department of Homeland Security, that referenced free rides.
But money associated with the nonprofit, which he helped launch in 2015, was never intended to pay for long-distance transportation and should be used for emergency use or within the city of the nonprofit, he argued.
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"When I first started this program, I said it would only be used for food and shelter, maybe transportation inside a city, but not to be sending them up there," said Cuellar, who last month co-launched a 26-member House Democrat border security task force. "The family or somebody should pay for that, not the taxpayer dollars."
Tony Wen, a spokesperson for Cuellar, told Newsweek that the Texas Democrat never claimed that Catholic Charities San Antonio was "misusing" federal taxpayer dollars but "prefers" that funding go towards humanitarian relief needs like shelter and food, as originally intended when he helped start the program in 2014.
"To be clear, Rep. Cuellar is a supporter of SSP (FEMA's Shelter and Services Program) and helped secure $650 million in funding for the program this fiscal year as Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security," Wen said. "This program is a lifeline to border communities and provides crucial funding to reimburse nonprofits and local governments dealing with influxes of irregular migration in South Texas.
"Representative Cuellar will continue working at all levels of government to support border communities as they see historic levels of irregular migration."
A spokeswoman with Catholic Charities of San Antonio told Border Report that the nonprofit is eligible to receive $10.8 million in additional funding through the FEMA Shelter and Services Program for its MRS Centro de Bienvenida temporary shelter, which has provided humanitarian aid and since September 2022 has assisted over 305,000 people.
De La Cruz said money is not supposed to subsidize illegal migrants and give them free transportation anywhere.
"They misused funds and sent these illegal immigrants where their preferred destination was with taxpayers hard-earned money," she said. "This is just simply unacceptable."
Newsweek reached out to De La Cruz email for comment.
Update 04/22/24, 2:52 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Rep. Cuellar's spokesperson, Tony Wen.
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