On March 11, the Department of Homeland Security sent the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande a letter insinuating illegal activities at a diocesan shelter, including human trafficking.
The letter, sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, states that the Department of Homeland Security, of which FEMA is a part, has “significant concerns” about organizations receiving FEMA grants using those funds to engage in or facilitate “illegal activities.”
Hamilton wrote that such organizations, such as the diocese’s migrant shelter, “may be guilty of encouraging or inducing an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States” and “transporting or moving illegal aliens, harboring, concealing or shielding from detection illegal aliens or applicable conspiracy aiding or abetting.”
In an online video posted on March 14, Bishop Michael Hunn of the Rio Grande diocese said the letter amounted to a not-so-subtle accusation that the diocese was engaged in human trafficking. Hunn did not share the letter with Sojourners. (The Denver Post published a copy of a similar letter.)
“I’m insulted by the insinuation that we have been involved in anything illegal or immoral,” Hunn said in the video after reading excerpts from the letter.
“Volunteers made tacos and lasagna.”
The diocese’s Borderlands Ministries partnered with the Annunciation House shelter network to provide temporary housing for people seeking asylum at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in El Paso, Texas. The shelter housed up to 25 asylum seekers at a time, working with Customs and Border Protection and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which are part of DHS, to welcome families and other vulnerable individuals who entered the U.S. legally and were waiting for their cases to be heard.
With the number of border crossings plummeting in reaction to changes in policy between the Biden and Trump administrations at the beginning of 2025, the shelter has not housed any migrants for months.
“Up until December 2024, every other week, we had 10 or 25 people,” Hunn told Sojourners in an interview by phone on March 17. “We offered a warm shower and safe place for those brought to us by Border Patrol. Volunteers made tacos and lasagna.
“For the government to halt federal assistance and come at us with an investigation when we’ve done nothing illegal is pretty crazy to me,” the bishop said.
Hunn said the diocese is presently consulting with attorneys about how to respond. But, he added, federal officials should already be aware of the information requested in the letter, given their coordination with Annunciation House to relocate immigrants from detention facilities to the shelters.
In the meantime, the bishop published the video to head off any media reports that might negatively depict his diocese, the shelter, or its wider Borderlands Ministries, which provides relief, advocacy and development work along 40% of the U.S.'s border with Mexico.
“I wanted to tell the truth from the beginning,” he said, “and help people understand the laws of the U.S. with respect to what it means to claim asylum.”
Hunn said there is a lot of misinformation in the media and online that suggests every migrant who crosses the border is a criminal or gang member. At best, it paints groups like the diocese as being duped into helping criminal organizations; at worst, it suggests they are complicit in crimes.
“These things just aren’t true,” he said. “We work with Border Patrol and law enforcement and in conversations with them, they would rather be focusing on criminals and cartels and not going after people who are positive contributors to our society.”
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To those who question the diocese or have concerns about the border, Hunn encouraged them to take a “border pilgrimage.”
“I encourage people who think that to come work with us on the border and learn what the reality is,” he said.
The diocese is not alone in being accused. The Trump administration has suggested that numerous cities, towns, and nonprofits across the country — including numerous organizations and cities in other parts of Texas — have used government grants issued during the Biden administration to traffic immigrants in violation of federal human smuggling laws.
As first reported by the Associated Press, the three-page letter from Hamilton’s office asks organizations to identify and provide contact information for the immigrants served, “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided” as well as sign an affidavit affirming they have not broken the law within 30 days of receiving the letter. During the review, the funding — including money already earmarked for services provided — will be withheld.
FEMA grants are given to cities, towns, states, and organizations to provide aid for migrants already processed and released by federal immigration officials. In fiscal year 2024, DHS awarded $641 million in federal funds to offset costs incurred by municipalities and nonprofits, according to the FEMA website. This list included various faith-based groups such as the Interfaith Welcome Coalition in San Antonio, as well as Catholic Charities in San Diego and across Texas. The Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande was allocated $130,679.
This also included $381,000 to Annunciation House, which operates the network of migrant shelters in El Paso of which the Rio Grande’s shelter is a part. During President Joe Biden’s term, Annunciation House coordinated placement at shelters in collaboration with Customs and Border Protection. The agency then arranged for asylum seekers to be transferred from federal detention facilities to shelters such as the one operated by the Diocese of the Rio Grande in El Paso.
“Jesus calls us to this work and the Constitution protects our right to do so.”
In February 2024, representatives from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office came to Annunciation House seeking records related to its operations from their director, Ruben Garcia, and claiming the Catholic charity was engaged in “alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house.” They were given one day to respond. Annunciation House filed a petition in Texas state court, receiving a temporary restraining order from a district court judge in El Paso, blocking the attorney general from enforcing the records order.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton then filed a counterclaim against Annunciation House for failing to comply with the request for records and attempted to shut them down, suggesting the religious nonprofit was “worsening illegal immigration” and that the charity is a “criminal enterprise designed to facilitate illegal border crossings and to conceal illegally present aliens from law enforcement,” according to court documents. The case is presently pending before the state’s Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Episcopal Church joined dozens of other religious groups in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to rescind guidelines that limited ICE from entering “sensitive locations” such as churches, schools, and hospitals.
The multifaith coalition of plaintiffs claim that raids in and around places of worship without a warrant would place undue burden on the free exercise of their religious obligations to welcome and serve immigrants.
Hunn echoed the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop, Sean Rowe, who said that in God’s kingdom, immigrants and refugees are not at the edges, fearful and alone, but are the very center of God’s story.
It’s “really important at this time — we need to stay clear about Jesus' message and the practice of Christianity,” Hunn said.
“Part of my concern is that we are seeing multiple changes to the way the government is looking at the practice of Christianity and the free practice thereof,” he said. “If the government suggests that feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, and loving our neighbor isn’t the practice of our faith, it’s time to stand up and remind people that Jesus calls us to this work and the Constitution protects our right to do so.”
Ken Chitwood (@kchitwood) is a religion scholar and newswriter based between Germany and Arizona.
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