Catholic Charities

This story originally appeared at Complicit Clergy and was republished with permission.

The story of the murder of Georgia college student Laken Riley by an illegal alien suspect named Jose Ibarra has dominated national news headlines this past week.

Ibarra allegedly entered the US via El Paso, Texas in 2022 and was released from a detention center due to overcrowding. NewsNation reports that a suspect matching Ibarra’s name and age was arrested by New York police in 2022 for endangering a 5-year-old child.

In September 2023, Jose Ibarra reportedly moved to Athens, Georgia to be near his brother, Diego Ibarra. Diego, also an illegal alien, entering the US in 2023 and was reportedly arrested several times by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.

Now we learn that Ibarra was apparently a resident of Covenant House, a New York based charity. Ibarra listed Covenant House’s address as his official release address on his U.S. Customs and Border Patrol documents. Congressman Lance Gooden of Texas has demanded that Convenant House immediately release all records related to Jose Ibarra.

Covenant House is an agency of Catholic Charities of New York. Its stated goal is to provide safe housing and holistic care to youth ages 16–21 experiencing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. Its latest 990 Form reveals that it raised nearly $91 million in 2022.

Covenant House operates in 14 U.S. States, 2 Canadian Providences and 6 Latin American cities.  A search of USAspending.gov for entries containing the keyword “Covenant House” revealed a total of $56.6 million in prime awards and $13.3 in subawards in federal taxpayer funds provided to Covenant House in between 2021-2023 (click here for a list of the detailed grants).  Keep in mind these grants may have been made for services unrelated to immigration activities, but money is fungible. Keep in mind this is simply one of the hundreds of entites through which Catholic organizations are receiving federal taxpayer funds and does not account for any state taxpayer grants these organizations may have received (see Bishop Bank Billions in Federal Immigration Funds).

Residing in the Archdiocese of New York, Covenant House is ultimately the responsibility of Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

McALLEN — The media tent that once stood in the parking lot of Sacred Heart Church is gone, as are the television crews and reporters who descended this summer when the flow of Central American immigrants illegally crossing the Texas border was major news.

But after a brief lull, the surge of undocumented families passing through a temporary shelter set up by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley seems to be rising again. The spotlight may have turned away, but if the sense of crisis is gone, the people have not stopped coming. 

“The numbers increased a lot this past month, almost to 100 every day [last week],” said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. “We have seen some that have already been caught and tried again. They have hope that they have a chance at a better life here.”

After Christmas, she said, the charity will begin searching for a facility to turn what began as a temporary shelter into a permanent offering.