A far-left illegal immigrant advocacy organization has raked in over a million dollars from the Biden-Harris Department of Homeland Security while attempting to halt the deportation of illegal aliens and trying to “dismantle the U.S. immigration enforcement system.”
The Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) advocates for illegal immigration, supports mass amnesty proposals, provides legal assistance to prevent deportations, and uses illegal immigrants in voter mobilization and turnout operations, all while raking in federal grants from the very same agency tasked with maintaining border security.
“CHIRLA works to dismantle the U.S. immigration enforcement system that profits from tearing apart immigrant families,” the organization explains, specifically naming DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as its targets. But while the far-left organization has maligned DHS and its immigration enforcement mechanisms as an instrument of oppression, CHIRLA is set to receive $1.2 million in taxpayer funded grants from the federal law enforcement agency.
CHIRLA’s federal grants could frustrate Vice President Kamala Harris’s efforts to rebrand herself as a “border state prosecutor” ahead of the presidential election. Over 10 million people have crossed the border under the Biden-Harris administration, with an estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrant gotaways recorded since the pair took office. In the final days of the race, the Harris campaign has even run an advertisement that claims Democrats are the party of border security, featuring an image of former president Donald Trump’s border wall
Todd Bensman, a Senior National Security Fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Wire that CHIRLA could easily find common cause with the Biden-Harris administration, which is staffed with radical ideologues who likely agree with the group’s far-left positions.
“It’s perfectly in line with what they’ve been doing for three and a half years,” Bensman said of the funding, adding that the administration is “peopled with appointees who all share those ideologies, the same ideology, which is that border enforcement and immigration laws are immoral.”
According to its IRS 990 form, CHIRLA teaches illegal immigrants “how to protect themselves against Immigration Customs Enforcement,” which deports criminal illegal aliens, including those who’ve been charged with violent crimes.
A 2023 grant from the DHS U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the amount of $450,000 went to the group for “citizenship instruction and naturalization services.” CHIRLA explains that it focuses on both naturalization and Deferred Action Childhood Arrival applications, the latter of which allows illegal immigrants to avoid deportations.
Another grant, this one for $250,000 and awarded in 2022, went to further “innovations in citizenship education.” A 2021 grant of $250,000 to CHIRLA from DHS went towards instruction and naturalization for non-citizens. The DHS grants date back to 2014, when CHIRLA first received $250,000 as it worked to naturalize non-citizens.
CHIRLA told The Daily Wire that the funds come “from the USCIS side of DHS, not the enforcement side,” referencing the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Even CHIRLA’s naturalization efforts appear to be ideologically motivated, however. The organization is part of a coalition of nonprofits, previously uncovered by The Daily Wire, that works to naturalize citizens and mobilize them as voters to “sway the outcome of national, state, and local elections” while maintaining demographic reports on key swing states.
CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas, who first came to the United States illegally and was deported before being allowed to return as a legal citizen, was previously a board member of the National Partnership for New Americans, a George Soros-funded organization that attempts to mobilize new citizens as voters.
The organization is open about its radical stances on immigration, boasting that it uses illegal immigrants to attempt to mobilize voters for leftwing causes. One of CHIRLA’s projects “targets new citizens, Latinos, and English learners to build a voter base from scratch, with enough power to sway state politics.”
“Teams of paid/volunteer canvassers/phone bankers, ranging in status from undocumented to legal permanent residents, work to build a constant culture of voting among these voters,” CHIRLA explains.
The radical organization advocates for amnesty for all illegal immigrants present in the United States and has called for “immediate immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented people.”
CHIRLA also raises money to give scholarships to immigrant students, specifically saying they seek out those who are in the country illegally.
There’s also the CHIRLA Action Fund, an associated organization that is allowed to support political candidates for office and favors Democrats. Salas also serves as the board president for the CHIRLA Action Fund. The CHIRLA Action Fund endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for Senate, as well as the Soros-backed Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon.
