After Episcopal "bishop" Mariann Budde prayed for President Trump to have mercy on immigrants during his inauguration, the president accused the bishop of bringing her church into the world of politics.
However, the president wasn't quite correct about that.
Turns out, the church Budde leads was already highly involved in politics, especially concerning immigration, and has been for quite some time.
As a matter of fact, in 2023, her church played a significant part in immigration politics, to the tune of $53 million in taxpayer dollars.
The Episcopal Migration Ministry (EMM) received that money from the Office of Refugee Resettlement for aiding in the resettlement of 3,600 migrants. In 2024, they assisted 6400 migrants, though the dollar amount they received from that group hasn't been disclosed. (One could speculate it's more than $53 million.)
A Government Accountability Office report noted that under the resettlement program,
the funding is based on the number of refugees they serve, meaning affiliates have an incentive to maintain or increase the number of refugees they resettle each year rather than allowing the number to decrease.
It could even be suggested that they have an incentive to stand in front of a pulpit and lecture an incoming president on the importance of immigrants to the economy.
Especially their own economy!
EMM brings in LGBTQ refugees and asylees through a special federal refugee program initiated during the Obama administration, called 'Preferred Communities.'
This program pays a premium over standard refugee resettlement for contractors that resettle 'refugees experiencing social or psychological difficulties, including emotional trauma resulting from war and/or sexual or gender-based violence; survivors of torture; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) refugees; refugees who are HIV positive; populations with physical disabilities or other medical conditions.'
Yet, the Episcopal church is not even the biggest entity in this market.
Reports suggest that Catholic Charities USA received $1.4 billion under the program in 2021.
Yes, Billion with a B!
The good news is that the resettlement program is one of the funding schemes that Trump has paused for review.
Given the rapidly declining membership numbers of the Episcopalian Church, losing that influx of migrant money takes a serious toll.
One might think they would do something drastic to keep their branch from being pruned from the vine, like returning to biblical teaching, but it wouldn't be surprising to see them double down on their current path towards dissolution.
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