How Catholic Charities San Diego Transformed into a $80M Refugee Powerhouse on a Tide of Federal Dollars

Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego, once a modest diocesan outpost serving the homeless and hungry, ballooned into a near $80 million juggernaut through an avalanche of government grants. 

From 2019 to 2023, the organization’s revenue more than sextupled (6x), rocketing from $11.5 million to nearly $80 million—a surge fueled almost entirely by Uncle Sam’s checkbook, paid for by the American taxpayer.

At the epicenter of the surge?

Refugee resettlement, with a spotlight on President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan which spurred an Afghan “refugee” crisis, causing the California government to create new state programs to assist Afghani “newcomers” under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program. (The same program an Afghan national was a part of who murdered a national guardsman and critically injured another in Washington D.C. last month, the day before Thanksgiving).

Sharing the spotlight with the refugees from Kabul was the Biden Administration’s open border policies which, according to CCDSD’s CEO, led to migrants from over 100 countries being “dropped off” in San Diego. (see video below).

Through programs like the Afghan Support and Investment Program (ASIP), CCDSD became the statewide linchpin for housing, feeding, transporting, and integrating over 9,500+ Afghan newcomers.

The exact number of Afghan “newcomers” to date is unknown as both CCDSD and ASIP did not respond to our email. 

Why was Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego (CCDSD) chosen by the California government for a partnership with the state?

One: its proximity to the southern border, and Two: California is broke.

According to a 2023 interview with CCDSD’s CEO Appaswamy “Vino” Pajanor, California is broke after spending over a billion dollars on “migrants dropped off” in the state during President Biden’s open border crisis, which Pajanor refers to as a “humanitarian crisis.”

During the interview, Pajanor reveals they have helped over 250,000 migrants in two years (2021-2023) and have found them housing within or outside of California. Yet, “over a four-year period of time, Catholic Charities says it’s served 405,000 migrants from 146 countries.”

“These individuals were legally processed” by ICE and DHS, some were released with “sicknesses,” Pajanor says.

WATCH:

Unpacking California’s $38M Afghan Support and Investment Program (ASIP)

As the Afghan Support and Investment Program (ASIP) is scheduled to wind down its final weeks—ceasing new enrollments after December 20, 2025—California’s experiment in refugee housing is a taxpayer-funded windfall for nonprofits, specifically CCDSD and its preferred contractors who raked in millions of taxpayer dollars.

Launched in March 2022 by the California Department of Social Services, Refugee Programs Bureau, ASIP funneled $38.2 million in federal funds from the Office of Refugee Resettlement into direct rental subsidies, utility aid, and minimal case management for Afghan arrivals under Operation Allies Welcome. 

Split evenly between CCDSD and Northern California’s International Rescue Committee, the program provided up to 12 months of support for “eligible households”—primarily those released into California between July 31, 2021, and September 30, 2022, but the state extended the program through December 2025.

The 12 months of support included “free” rent, food, housing, utilities and healthcare for an estimated 9,500+ Afghan individuals and families who were dropped into California, providing up to $2,500 monthly for a family of five which covered rent, deposits, and utilities. Those who were dropped into San Diego with undisclosed “sicknesses” received “free” healthcare.

In Southern California alone, CCDSD reported an average of 37 household applications weekly, then spiked to 142 weekly by June 2022, just months after launch.

Reportedly, unemployed Afghan refugees were reassessed every three months by the Office of Refugee Resettlement Refugee Support Services to ensure progress towards finding employment. 

Trump and Taxpayers Lose the 2020 Election; Biden, CCDSD, Contractors and Migrants Win

By 2022 under President Joe Biden, Afghanistan was left in the hands of the Taliban and the U.S. border was wide open.

CCDSD’s revenue more than doubled to $32.6 million, grants at $31.9 million (a staggering 101.5% growth).

This wasn’t charitable giving; it was Biden’s Afghan Supplemental Appropriations Act, pumping $1 billion nationwide via the Office of Refugee Resettlement for “welcome corps” and housing.

CCDSD’s reported “Refugee Resettlement Assistance” for nearly 300,000 recipients totaled $47.8 million; “Stipends for Participants” for 45 recipients totaled over $400,000; and “Immigrant Services” surpassed $1 million for over 3,000 recipients.

Biden’s border crisis continued into 2023. That year, CCDSD reported $70 million revenue, $69.8 million in grants (a 118.6% surge).

Their 990s provide refugee metrics: “Refugee Resettlement Assistance” at $55.2 million for nearly 117,000 recipients; “Rental Assistance” totaling nearly $900,000 for 2,759 recipients; Nutrition added $440,467 for 26,476 individuals; and Flood Relief Assistance for 20 recipients added $20,865.

CCDSD Contractors Cash In

The 990s’ Part VII, Section B, spotlight the key cogs in the refugee machine: the top five highest-compensated independent contractors who provided everything from meal deliveries to “client” aid and charter transports.

For fiscal 2023 alone: 

• Mishmash LLC (1805 Newton Ave, San Diego, CA 92113): $5,691,980 for meal delivery services—hot meals to shelters housing thousands of newcomers (Now permanently closed).
• The Courtroom (841 West A St, El Centro, CA 92243): $1,275,784 for client assistance. The address is likely a typo as there is no such address in El Centro. However 841 W Main Street was the address of The Courtroom restaurant which is also now permanently closed.
• Four M’s LLC (631 Camino Del Rio, San Diego, CA 92108): $2,376,360 for client assistance, supporting direct refugee intakes at the Ramada Suites by Wyndham. Menketh Yalda acts as the registered agent. He is based at the same address as the corporation’s principal address.
• Ranjan LLC (1093 Airport Rd, El Centro, CA 92243): $1,157,113 for client assistance, focused on border-proximate support for lodging at the Travelodge by Wyndham. The LLC was conveniently established on January 1, 2022 by Niral Munshaw from Anaheim CA, holding the position of Manager; Sandeep Patel from El Centro CA serves as the Manager.
• GOGO Charters LLC (6595 Roswell Rd, Ste G291, Atlanta, GA 30328): $592,300 for charters—busing Afghans from airports to safe houses.

In total, $11,093,537, or 16 percent of CCDSD expenses, were paid to these five contractors amid the 2022-2023 flood of Afghan refugees and migrants.

Trump and Taxpayers Win the 2024 Election, CCDSD Loses 

Now, under President Trump, the taxpayer gravy train for CCDSD and other migrant-supporting-tax-exempt nonprofits has come to an abrupt halt.

As reported by NBC7 San Diego in March, 2025:

Catholic Charities of San Diego is putting the brakes on the busloads of asylum-seeking migrants it was taking to its Mission Valley shelter.

Now that there’s been a major border policy shift under President Donald Trump, the non-profit’s CEO says their contact with migrants at the border has dropped from an average of about 400-people a day, to just a handful a week.

“There’s not a humanitarian crisis,” said Vino Pajanor, Catholic Charities CEO. “For us, we have to always be responsible and accountable to the tax dollars that are invested into us as an agency.”

With the Trump administration freezing federal funding and cracking down at the border, Pajanor says the charity is now being forced to lay off people working in two of its migrant programs: refugee services and its migrant respite shelter.

At the peak of the migrant surge, Pajanor says the federal government gave them about $9 million worth of their $46 million budget for the year.

(Editor’s note: That isn’t what the 990s show)

Over a four-year period of time, Catholic Charities says it’s served 405,000 migrants from 146 countries.

With the federal funding freeze, Pajanor says his organization is pivoting in order to find funding.

“How can we support these individuals in a way through private philanthropy, through foundations coming and helping us, with the community wrapping themselves around us?” Pajanor said (emphasis added).

“Fundraising through private philanthropy and related foundations.” Isn’t that what tax-exempt charities are supposed to do?

California may be broke, but Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego and its contractors were thriving during the Biden Administration, while the average American citizen scraped to get by during those four years of skyrocketing inflation, an immigration-related spike in housing and rental costs, and ever-increasing utility bills and grocery bills. Afghan refugees and tens of millions of migrants didn’t have that problem, they were subsidized by American taxpayers.