A Republican senator from Missouri threatened an investigation on Wednesday into one of Los Angeles most established immigrant organizations, accusing them of “bankrolling the unrest.”
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights should “cease and desist any further involvement in the organization, funding, or promotion of these unlawful activities,” said Sen. Josh Hawley in a letter sent to the head of the organization, Angelica Salas.
“Credible reporting now suggests that your organization has provided logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions,” wrote Hawley, who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. “Let me be clear: bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech. It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct. Accordingly, you must immediately cease and desist any further involvement in the organization, funding, or promotion of these unlawful activities.”
Hawley did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Salas, a longtime immigrant rights activist who pushed for sanctuary state laws and has organized dozens of peaceful protests over the years, said the accusations are false and pointed to the years of peaceful organizing the group has done in Los Angeles.
“This is trying to take away the spotlight from the pain and suffering that this administration is causing,” she said. “I refuse to make it about anybody else but them.”
She said the federal government is engaged in a concerted effort to strip immigrants of their rights, in part by undermining the groups that support them.
Hawley’s letter follows an announcement by a House panel this week that it would investigate 200 non-governmental organizations, including CHIRLA, “that were involved in providing services or support to inadmissible aliens during the Biden-Harris administration’s historic border crisis.”
In a statement, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green (R-TN) and Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Josh Brecheen (R-OK) wrote that they “are examining whether these NGOs used taxpayer dollars to facilitate illegal activity, as the previous administration incentivized millions of inadmissible aliens to cross our borders.”
On Friday federal officials arrested Service Employees International Union California President Huerta on suspicion of interfering with federal officers. The union is among the group working with the CHIRLA. The top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles Bill Essayli seemed to suggest on Sunday that other union officials and organizers would be investigated.
“We saw union activists and organizers be involved in these efforts to resist our operations,” he told local television station KCAL . “We’ve got lots of video online and both surveillance videos. We have FBI teams working around the clock we will identify you. We’ll find you and we’ll come get you.”
Salas said they are doing nothing illegal, but she takes threats seriously.
“It’s very clear they have an agenda against social justice organizations and anybody in any infrastructure that supports the community rights organizations.” she said. “That’s why they’ve not just gone after the immigrant community, but also after organizations, by defunding us, by trying to discredit us, trying to connect us with with like violent groups. This is not normal.”
