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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., the chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, announced June 11 that he has begun investigating whether a nonprofit is funding the Los Angeles riots.
“Who is funding the LA riots? This violence isn’t spontaneous,” he wrote in a post on X that shared an image of the letter he wrote to Coalition of Human Immigrant Rights — Los Angeles’ (CHIRLA) executive director, Angelica Salas.
CHIRLA, which was founded in 1986, is a Los Angeles-based organization of immigrant families and individuals who work to create a world that is “fully inclusive of immigrants,” according to its website. Its services include leadership development, advocacy, civil engagement, legal support, migrant assistance, media and small business partnerships.
According to ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, CHIRLA has been tax-exempt since September 1993 and its Form 990 tax filings indicate that in fiscal year 2023, it had $44.9 million in revenue, $20.1 million in expenses, $47.6 million in total assets, and $16.3 million in total liabilities. Salas and Zerihoun Yilma, the organization’s managing director, were its only employees. Salas’ compensation was $201,654, and Yilma’s was $167,038.
Hawley wrote in the letter that “credible reporting now suggests that your organization has provided logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions.”
“Let me be clear: bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech,” he said. “It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct.
Hawley then ordered the organization to end all involvement in the unlawful activities he accused it of committing.
Hawley asked the organization to preserve its donor lists and several types of records from Nov. 5, 2024, through the present regarding immigration enforcement or immigration protests: internal communications, financial documents, third-party contracts or vendor agreements, grant applications and funding proposals, travel and lodging records, and media or public relations strategies.
Hawley said that if the organization does not comply, the subcommittee may make a referral for a criminal investigation.
A June 11 press release from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Republicans’ Homeland Security Committee said that House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Dr. Mark Green, R-Tenn., and Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., have begun investigating more than 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” to see if they used taxpayer dollars for illegal work.
The LA Times reported June 11 that Salas said the accusations are false and that the organization has organized many peaceful protests in the city for years.
“This is trying to take away the spotlight from the pain and suffering that this administration is causing,” Salas said, according to the article. “I refuse to make it about anybody else but them.”
According to the New York Post, a CHIRLA spokesperson said that, aside from organizing a press event on June 5 to protest ICE roundups and “sending legal observers to immigration courts and detention centers” on June 6, 7, and 8 “as part of the LA Rapid Response Network,” it has not been part of the protests in the city.
CHIRLA posted on Bluesky June 10 regarding its participation in a prayer gathering for families that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has separated.
In another Bluesky post, the organization asked people who see ICE in the city to contact its direct immigrant assistance hotline.
CatholicVote contacted Jorge-Mario Cabrera, CHIRLA’s communications director, and Cabrera said that a letter would come “soon” but after CatholicVote extended the deadline for him multiple times, Cabrera still had not sent the letter.