Millions on the line for Episcopal Church as ‘woke’ bishop lectured Trump on migrants

A connection has been made between the condescending lecture Bishop Mariann Budde gave President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day and her church’s role in migrant programs.

Budde pleaded with the 47th president to show mercy to migrants and the LGBTQ community while Trump and his family sat in the front pew of the Washington National Cathedral. But the deliberate jab by the Episcopal bishop of Washington during the sermon could be characterized, among other things, as a conflict of interest as the federal contracting arm of the church has now been affected by Trump’s funding freeze.

The Episcopal Migration Ministries announced it will lay off employees and end its federally funded work as the Episcopal News Service reported that as one of “10 agencies with federal contracts to resettle refugees on behalf of the State Department” the EMM’s work “ground to a halt last week when President Donald Trump suspended the refugee program as one of his first acts after taking office Jan. 20.”

“These departing employees have every reason to be angry, frustrated and frightened at this end of the work to which they have devoted their energy in recent years,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe told staff and church leaders in a letter. “I am also grieving the loss of this refugee resettlement ministry and the end of this season of our ministry.”

“EMM budget figures for 2024 are not available yet, but in 2023 it earned $53 million from various taxpayer-funded government programs to resettle 3,600 individuals,” an op-ed published in the New York Post pointed out. “EMM ‘sponsored’ 6,400 individuals from 48 countries in 2024. The leading nationalities were Afghans under a special humanitarian program, refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and others in smaller numbers from seven distinct special resettlement programs.”

Don Barnett, a board member of the Center for Immigration Studies, noted the “striking hypocrisy” of Budde’s lecture to Trump while her church advocated for immigrants with federal funds.

“Unlike everyday immigrants, these new arrivals receive government assistance and, most importantly, are immediately eligible for all forms of welfare, such as Medicaid and cash assistance, on the same basis as a US citizen,” Barnett wrote.

“Further, they can immediately sponsor friends and relatives under a recent Biden expansion of the refugee resettlement program,” he added. “The Office of Refugee Resettlement was projecting 656,500 new arrivals in 2025, who would fall under its care. Clearly this is a program wildly out of control.”

Frieda Powers

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