AUSTIN (KXAN) – Following Catholic Charities of Fort Worth’s announcement that it would step away from leading Texas’s refugee resettlement program, over 50 refugee organizations have sent letters to CCFW urging them to delay that decision for a little longer. 

On June 2, CCFW released a statement announcing that on Oct. 1, it would “conclude its federally funded role as the Replacement Designee for the State of Texas under the Texas Office for Refugees.” The organization said the move was necessary to refocus its leadership and resources on local matters. 

Organizations that rely on federal funds to provide essential services to refugees settling in Texas are concerned that if CCFW does not close out 2026 as the Regional Replacement Designee, around $200 million designated for Texas refugee groups could fall through the cracks.

According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a Regional Replacement Designee, or RRD, is an organization picked by the federal government to administer refugee resettlement funds in a state. CCFW became Texas’s RRD in 2016. Since then, CCFW has been responsible for distributing federal dollars to local agencies so they can provide things like housing, job training and healthcare to refugees.

“Resources are available to CCFW to use through 2026. Now that they have chosen to step down, it will require the federal government to work diligently and expeditiously to either try to de-obligate and or recommit them to a new organization within this very tiny timeframe of four months,” said Kimberly Haynes, the Texas state director for Church World Service, an organization that, among other things, helps refugees resettle in the U.S. 

If the federal government does not find a replacement, “that could mean upwards of $200 million would not be accessible, to be used across the state of Texas, for some 100,000 individuals who need services for over 30 plus organizations across the state,” Haynes continued. 

affiliate KXAN has reached out to CCFW for a comment but has not yet heard back. 

Haynes said at least 56 Texas organizations and even more clients, churches and congregations have sent letters to CCFW asking them to remain in the position until 2026. Haynes said as far as she knows, CCFW has yet to acknowledge those letters. 

Beyond this, Haynes said, 2025 has been an exceptionally challenging year for refugee nonprofits. 

“I’ve been working in the space for 22 years,” she said. “The level of negative insights into the services, the programs, the clients we serve, has been nothing short of devastating.” 

‘You’re leaving everything’

Salemu Alimasi, 35, who now works as a grassroots community organizer with CWS, knows firsthand how important local refugee nonprofits are. 

He came to the U.S. as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2011.

“The war started in 1996, that’s when I was 6 years old, and the war broke out in my village,” he said. “I witnessed massacre. These soldiers were killing people, burning them alive. And I took off – ran. I lost track of my parents.”

Alimasi said he fled and lived in Tanzania for two years when he heard it was safe to return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and reunite with his parents. 

“We went back, and I was reunited again with my family. It was exciting, but the peace, the joy we knew was gone,” he said. 

He said the war and killing continued. In his early 20s, he and his family decided to leave the country, and Alimasi eventually made it to Houston. Before he was a CWS staff member, he was a client. 

“Coming somewhere you don’t know, you don’t know what to expect,” Alimasi said. “You’re leaving your homeland, you’re leaving your memory, you’re leaving everything, and you’re heading somewhere. You’re excited, but you don’t know where you’re going.”

“CWS is doing an amazing job to help people,” he continued.