Miami Catholic Charities cuts 84 jobs after losing federal funds. More cuts to come
A Miami facility for unaccompanied migrant children will shutter and more than 80 employees of Catholic Charities will lose their jobs after the Trump administration canceled their multi-million funding contract, according to filings made with the Florida Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
Earlier this month Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami confirmed that it received notice in late March that the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, was cancelling an $11 million contract that funded Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children’s Village, formerly known as Boystown, which has housed unaccompanied immigrant children since the 1960s.
Monday’s layoff filing shows that Catholic Charities notified 84 employees of the layoffs and closure of Children’s Village. Among the positions eliminated are 46 youth care workers, 11 case managers, 6 clinicians, 2 shelter supervisors and several other specialists and care coordinators.
The Archdiocese of Miami confirmed the layoffs on Tuesday to the Herald saying that they are the direct “result of HHS not renewing funding to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese Miami.” The organization will lay off 84 staff members by May 31 and another 20 employees by June 30, according to Peter Routsis-Arroyo, CEO of Catholic Charities.
The non-profit acted as a federally funded foster care system, independent of state agencies that have custody of abused and neglected children. The decision ended a relationship between the Catholic Church and the U.S. government dating back to the first arrivals of Cuban exiles in South Florida.
During a press conference last week, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski and Routsis-Arroyo asked the federal government to reconsider its decision to end the contract that funds the unaccompanied minors program, which is the longest-running of its kind in the country.
READ MORE: ‘The children lose’: Catholic leaders say Trump shelter closure will scar migrant kids
In an April 2 letter to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Routsis-Arroyo called the shelter a “core program” and said the contract represents over a quarter of Catholic Charities’ total annual budget. He described how the residential facility has long been a model for other programs of its kind. The Office of Refugee Resettlement has previously asked the church to train other organizations and received visits from agency leaders, who have praised the program as a blueprint for unaccompanied minor programs.
Ultimately, the instability will likely result in more trauma for the children, Routsis-Arroyo said: “Who loses? The children lose. The government loses.”
In that same letter, Routsis-Arroyo said that as many as 112 people will lose their jobs due to the contract’s termination, affecting Catholic Charities’ ability to run their other programs, which include adult daycare centers, substance-abuse programs and affordable housing.
“We don’t feel there’s anyone who can provide the compassionate and quality services that we can … and we still don’t understand why we were not funded going forward,” Routsis-Arroyo said last week.
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and donors in South Florida’s Jewish and Muslim communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza and the Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 3:50 PM.
