EXCLUSIVE – Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley – the South Texas nonprofit long known for its migrant shelter run by Sister Norma Pimentel – has been suspended from receiving federal funds and now faces a rare six-year debarment after a Department of Homeland Security investigation found major grant violations, according to internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents shared exclusively with Fox News Digital.

The action, taken by FEMA on behalf of DHS on Nov. 19-20, follows months of warnings and data reviews that auditors say uncovered sweeping inaccuracies, large gaps in migrant records and significant billing outside federally allowed timeframes.

The suspension applies only to this South Texas affiliate, not to Catholic Charities USA or any other Catholic Charities chapters nationwide.

In a formal Notice of Suspension and Proposed Debarment, DHS officials accused the organization of submitting migrant data so inconsistent the agency could not verify whether many of the people it reported serving had ever appeared in DHS databases.

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Investigators also alleged at least 248 instances in which the nonprofit billed the government for services outside the 45-day window federal rules allow for migrants released from DHS custody.

FEMA concluded the group provided assurances that its spreadsheets were accurate and compliant, statements the agency said were “false” or “not entirely truthful,” according to the documents.

The proposed punishment is unusually severe. While federal debarments typically run three years, DHS is seeking a six-year ban due to what it describes as a pattern of “pervasive” problems that spanned multiple programs and multiple years.

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If finalized, the designation would cut the organization off from most federal funding streams and flag it in the government-wide System for Award Management, warning agencies and pass-through partners not to issue new grants.

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley (CCRGV) now has 30 days to respond, submit documentation or request a meeting to argue it remains “presently responsible.” If it does not, the six-year ban would likely go into effect.

The DHS findings center heavily on migrant intake data the nonprofit submitted to justify millions of dollars in payments through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter-Humanitarian program (EFSP-H) and its newer Shelter Services Program. FEMA said it asked the group to provide names, A-numbers, countries of origin and evidence of DHS encounters for individuals it claimed to assist. In response, the nonprofit told the agency all migrants had A-numbers recorded and asserted its spreadsheets were accurate within a 4.99% margin of error.

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Auditors said the reality was far different. In sample sets reviewed by the agency, A-numbers were frequently missing, truncated to four digits, or replaced with phone numbers and other stray entries. Error rates reached 21%, 26% and 42% across three spreadsheets, the documents show. When FEMA tested 100 names, it could not find 61 of them in DHS systems at all.

Investigators also stressed the Rio Grande chapter’s 45-day rule violations. Under federal guidelines, NGOs may only bill for food, shelter or transport for migrants within 45 days of their release from DHS custody.

FEMA told the organization it found at least 248 cases where billing dates occurred after that window had closed, raising concerns that federal dollars were used for services outside what the law allows. The agency wrote that such activity could amount to “potential criminal activity,” though DHS has not said whether it plans to refer the case for criminal review.

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The documents further cite the nonprofit’s own posted FY 2024 audit, which reported “material weaknesses” in internal controls over federal awards, inconsistent intake procedures and missing documentation for roughly 5% of sampled recipients. FEMA said corrective-action plans were copied forward almost verbatim year to year, without meaningful improvements.

Catholic leaders have recently pushed back against efforts to cut funding. Pope Leo XIV praised Catholic Charities USA this fall as “agents of hope,” commending its 168 agencies for decades of work with migrants, refugees and the poor.

Pimentel, who leads the Rio Grande Valley branch, has for years been a national figure in migrant ministry. Her Humanitarian Respite Center once processed more than 1,500 migrants per day at the height of mass crossings. She has been publicly praised by the Vatican for her humanitarian work and has spoken out against a return to the Remain in Mexico policy, saying families forced to wait in Mexico suffered “tremendously.”

But her organization has also been a political focal point. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has pursued cases against several Catholic migrant shelters, accusing them of encouraging illegal immigration and operating illegal “stash houses,” including his suit against Annunciation House in El Paso. A judge earlier this year blocked Paxton from deposing Sister Norma in that separate matter.

The suspension now places the Rio Grande Valley operation under simultaneous federal and state scrutiny. It is not yet clear whether other local shelters or municipal partners can absorb the South Texas caseload if the nonprofit ultimately loses federal funds. CCRGV currently serves far fewer migrants than in prior years, but remains one of the region’s key intake points.

DHS has not said when a final decision on debarment will be made. The organization continues to operate during the suspension period but cannot receive new federal awards until the matter is resolved.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Catholic Charities for comment.

DHS noted to Fox News Digital that future debarments may occur and that investigations remain ongoing.

In a fiery rebuttal to allegations he’d criminally misrepresented facts in his mortgage documents, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) sued Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte on Tuesday — accusing him of criminally misusing government databases to baselessly target President Trump’s political opponents.

“Pulte has abused his position by scouring databases at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — two government-sponsored enterprises — for the private mortgage records of several prominent Democrats,” attorneys for Swalwell wrote in a federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. “He then used those records to concoct fanciful allegations of mortgage fraud, which he referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution.”

They said Pulte launched his attack on Swalwell at a particularly inopportune time, just as Swalwell was launching his campaign for California governor.

Pulte’s attack, Swalwell’s attorneys wrote, “was not only a gross mischaracterization of reality” but “a gross abuse of power that violated the law,” infringing on Swalwell’s free speech rights to criticize the president without fear of reprisal, and violating the Privacy Act of 1974, which they said bars federal officials from “leveraging their access to citizens’ private information as a tool for harming their political opponents.”

Pulte, the FHFA and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Pulte has previously defended his work probing mortgage documents of prominent Democrats, saying no one is above the law. His referrals have exclusively targeted Democrats, despite reporting on Republicans taking similar actions on their mortgages.

Swalwell’s lawsuit is the latest counterpunch to Pulte’s campaign, and part of mounting scrutiny over its unprecedented nature and unorthodox methods — not just from targets of his probes but from other investigators, too, according to one witness.

In addition to Swalwell, Pulte has referred mortgage fraud allegations to the Justice Department against Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who have all denied wrongdoing and suggested the allegations amount to little more than political retribution.

James was criminally charged by an inexperienced, loyalist federal prosecutor specially appointed by Trump in Virginia, though a judge has since thrown out that case on the grounds that the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed. The judge also threw out a case against former FBI Director James Comey, another Trump opponent.

Cook’s attorneys slammed Pulte in a letter to the Justice Department, writing that his “decision to use the FHFA to selectively — and publicly — investigate and target the President’s designated political enemies gives rise to the unmistakable impression that he has been improperly coordinating with the White House to manufacture flimsy predicates to launch these probes.”

Schiff also has lambasted Trump and Pulte for their targeting of him and other Democrats, and cheered the tossing of the cases against James and Comey, calling it “a triumph of the rule of law.”

In recent days, federal prosecutors in Maryland — where Schiff’s case is being investigated — have also started asking questions about the actions of Pulte and other Trump officials, according to Christine Bish, a Sacramento-area real estate agent and Republican congressional candidate who was summoned to Maryland to answer questions in the matter last week.

Pulte has alleged that Schiff broke the law by claiming primary residence for mortgages in both Maryland and California. Schiff has said he never broke any law and was always forthcoming with his mortgage lenders.

Bish has been investigating Schiff’s mortgage records since 2020, and had repeatedly submitted documents about Schiff to the federal government — first to the Office of Congressional Ethics, then earlier this year to an FHFA tip line and to the FBI, she told The Times.

When Trump subsequently posted one of Schiff’s mortgage documents to his Truth Social platform, Bish said she believed it was one she had submitted to the FHFA and FBI, because it was highlighted exactly as she had highlighted it. Then, she saw she had missed a call from Pulte, and was later asked by Pulte’s staff to email Pulte “the full file” she had worked up on Schiff.

“They wanted to make sure that I had sent the whole file,” Bish said.

Bish said she was subsequently interviewed via Google Meet on Oct. 22 by someone from the FHFA inspector general’s office and an FBI agent. She then got a subpoena in the mail that she interpreted as requiring her to be in Maryland last week. There, she was interviewed again, for about an hour, by the same official from the inspector general’s office and another FBI agent, she said — and was surprised their questions seemed more focused on her communications with people in the federal government than on Schiff.

“They wanted to know if I had been talking to anybody else,” she said. “You know, what did I communicate? Who did I communicate with?”

Schiff’s office declined to comment. However, Schiff’s attorney has previously told Justice Department officials that there was “ample basis” for them to launch an investigation into Pulte and his campaign targeting Trump’s opponents, calling it a “highly irregular” and “sordid” effort.

The acting FHFA inspector general at the time Bish was first contacted, Joe Allen, has since been fired, which has also raised questions.

On Nov. 19, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) — the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — wrote a letter to Pulte denouncing his probes as politically motivated, questioning Allen’s dismissal and demanding documentation from Pulte, including any communications he has had with the White House.

Swalwell’s attorneys wrote in Tuesday’s lawsuit that he never claimed primary residence in both California and Washington, D.C., as alleged, and had not broken any laws.

They accused Pulte of orchestrating a coordinated effort to spread the allegations against Swalwell via a vast network of conservative influencers, which they said had “harmed [Swalwell’s] reputation at a critical juncture in his career: the very moment when he had planned to announce his campaign for Governor of California.”

They said the “widespread publication of information about the home where his wife and young children reside” had also “exposed him to heightened security risks and caused him significant anguish and distress.”

Swalwell said in a statement that Pulte has “combed through private records of political opponents” to “silence them,” which shouldn’t be allowed.

“There’s a reason the First Amendment — the freedom of speech — comes before all others,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under former-President Joe Biden promised to “swiftly and safely” resettle Afghan allies into the United States, but multiple sources have confirmed the D.C. National Guard shooter came in under that same Biden-era program in 2021.

Biden responded to the “targeted” attack in D.C. just before news broke of how the alleged shooter, 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered the United States under humanitarian parole via Operation Allies Welcome, per DHS and FBI sources, giving him permission to be in country legally. 

In 2021, amid the Afghan withdrawal debacle, Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas promised to “swiftly and safely” resettle thousands of Afghan allies into the United States and confirmed that DHS had denied evacuees from entering the U.S. due to “derogatory” information obtained during the vetting process.

After the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that was followed by a Taliban takeover of the country, the Biden administration launched a large operation to support and resettle vulnerable Afghans, including those that had helped U.S. troops in the past. 

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Due to the rushed nature of the evacuation, plus broader concerns over immigration and parole-release policies, fears arose over whom the country may have been letting in. 

Mayorkas said during a September 2021 press conference that 120,000 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan since the beginning of the U.S. withdrawal, just months earlier. The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center found that nearly 800 aircraft evacuated thousands of people over just a 17-day period in August 2021.

At the time, Mayorkas touted the robust biometric screening and vetting process in place — in both the U.S. and transit countries — in order to make sure every individual entering the country was properly screened. 

In response to a question at the time from Fox News’ Jake Gibson, Mayorkas confirmed that there already had been individuals flagged with “derogatory information” during the vetting process, but did not specify the number of people flagged.

Mayorkas assured that 400 U.S. Customs and Border Patrol employees and the Transportation Security Administration would be brought up to assist. Part of the effort included moving refugees from military bases designated by the Pentagon to house and vet refugees before they enter the United States.

Lakanwal, who entered the U.S. in September 2021 after America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, had his permission to stay in the U.S. granted under Operation Allies Welcome, sources said. Authorities are investigating the shooting as a possible act of international terrorism. 

FBI officials confirmed two West Virginia National Guardsmen remain in critical condition after being shot in the head during an apparent targeted attack just a few blocks from the White House.

During comments Wednesday night, President Donald Trump called Biden “a disastrous president” and “the worst in the history of our country.”

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He also ridiculed the former president for flying Lakanwal “on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.”

“Nobody knew who was coming in, nobody knew anything about it,” Trump pointed out about the Afghan evacuation process under Biden. 

He also slammed broader parole and immigration policies under Biden, claiming Lakanwal’s “status was extended under legislation signed under President Biden. “

“This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation,” Trump added, announcing that the government “must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country under Biden.”

Trump also appeared to suggest the death penalty for Lakanwal, stating toward the end of his address that “we will bring the perpetrator of this barbaric attack to swift and certain justice – if the bullet’s going in the opposite direction – (unintelligible).”

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Meanwhile, former President Biden did respond to the tragic D.C. attack, but his comments came before news of how the shooter entered the United States.

“Jill and I are heartbroken that two members of the National Guard were shot outside the White House,” Biden posted on X, just before news broke that the shooter entered the country under his administration’s rapid resettlement program. 

“Violence of any kind is unacceptable, and we must all stand united against it. We are praying for the service members and their families.”

Fox News Digital Reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the news that Lakanwal came into the United States under the Biden-era program, but did not receive a response. Attempts to reach former DHS Secretary Mayorkas also were unsuccessful in time for publication.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Kelly Laco contributed to this report.