Religious-Liberty-Annual-Report

16 III – Religious Liberty and Congress

islation necessary to keep the federal government from shutting down. SBA has two provisions aimed at organiza tions serving newcomers. Section 115(b) of the bill presents a square religious liberty issue. It would defund any organization that “facilitates or encour ages unlawful activity, including unlawful entry.” (The text also lists a number of other illegal acts, such as drug smuggling, the facilitation or encour agement of which are not a religious liberty issue.) Some Republicans in Congress have made clear that they think the mere provision to migrants of basic humanitarian aid like food, water, and shelter constitutes facilitation of unlawful entry, and that the religious charities’ assistance to migrants en courages them to cross the border illegally in the first place. This bar on funding would apply to all funds from the U.S. Department of Homeland Se curity, including disaster relief and grants to help nonprofits make their facilities safe from mass shootings, even if the religious charity is providing this humanitarian aid entirely outside of any gov ernment-funded program. The other section, 115(c), defunds particular programs rather than particular charities. It would zero out any funding from the Department of Homeland Security for “transportation, lodging, or immigration legal services to inadmissible aliens.” Another bill introduced by House Republicans, the Protecting Federal Funds from Human Trafficking and Smuggling Act, prohibits any federal funds from being distributed to any nonprofit organiza tion unless the organization certifies that it is in compliance with a federal law that imposes crimi nal penalties on anyone who “encourages or induc es an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law.” Here, again, some supporters of this bill take the position that the mere knowledge that religious charities will meet newcomers’ basic human needs induces them to cross the border ille gally. The bill would also revoke the tax exemption 2. The Protecting Federal Funds from Human Trafficking and Smuggling Act

The most prominent legislative effort that would restrict religious organizations

from accessing federal funding is the Secure the Border Act (SBA),

comers. In some cases, this has escalated into demon strably false accusations that religious charities serving newcomers are motivated by monetary gain rather than their sincerely held religious beliefs. In response to perceived misconduct and mal-intent, Republican policy proposals have included stripping religious charities of funding they receive from the government to provide humanitarian aid to migrants in coopera tion with local, state, and federal officials. Some Republicans in Congress and public figures have called for formal hearings and investigations into the USCCB, Catholic Charities USA, and other reli gious charitable groups like Jewish Family Services and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. They have attempted to blame these organizations for facilitating illegal immigration through the services they provide. They have even falsely accused Catholic Charities, spe cifically, of being complicit in the sex and labor traf ficking of unaccompanied migrant children. Some conservative political advocacy organizations — tradi tionally allies of the Church on most religious liberty issues — have encouraged and promoted these defam atory assertions and attempted to legitimize hostili ties toward Catholic ministries serving newcomers. In October, an online personality with 900,000 followers on social media, discussing these conspiratorial claims about Catholic Charities, explicitly called for “shooting everyone involved” with Catholic Charities and other religious charities serving migrants. 1. The Secure the Border Act The most prominent legislative effort that would restrict religious organizations from accessing fed eral funding is the Secure the Border Act (SBA), which passed the House in 2023 by a vote of 219 to 213, but not the Senate. Congressional Republicans also attempted to attach numerous provisions from the Secure the Border Act onto appropriations leg