The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk have targeted USAID hardest so far in their challenge of the federal government: A sweeping funding freeze has shut down most of USAID’s programs worldwide, though a federal judge on Friday put a temporary halt to plans to pull thousands of agency staffers off the job.
Pope Francis’ point-man on migration and development has urged the Trump administration to remember Christian principles about caring for others, saying people are being “terrorized” by the U.S. crackdown on migrants and vital church-run aid programs are being jeopardized by the planned gutting of USAID.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Czerny said every incoming government has the right to review its foreign aid budget, and to even reform an agency like USAID.
The U.S. conference of Catholic bishops put out an unusually critical statement after President Donald Trump’s initial executive orders, saying those “focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us.”.
One of USAID’s biggest non-governmental recipients of funding is Catholic Relief Services, the aid agency of the Catholic Church in the U.S., which has already sounded the alarm about the cuts.
