President Donald Trump voiced support Saturday for new legislation aiming to punish groups linked to the June protests in Los Angeles against the administration’s aggressive immigration raids and arrests.
The legislation, offered by Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), would make nonprofits involved in supposedly “organizing the riots” ineligible for federal funding or tax-exempt status. At the center of the proposed bill is an immigrants rights group based in L.A. that denies any wrongdoing and says the accusations are false.
“CONGRESSMAN KEVIN KILEY’S, ‘NO TAX DOLLARS FOR RIOTS’ legislation, should be passed immediately,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday. “I am hereby instructing my Administration not to pay ANY money to these radicalized groups, regardless of the legislation. They get paid to incite riots, burn down or destroy a city, then come back to the trough to get money to help rebuild it. NO MORE MONEY!!!”
The text of the bill has not been publicly released.
Kiley framed the protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a threat. “The violence we have witnessed in Los Angeles is a threat to the safety of our communities and federal officers, and it undermines democracy by obstructing the policies of a duly elected president from being implemented.” Kiley said in a statement. “We need better tools to deter and punish this lawless and anti-democratic behavior.”
The anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles began this month in response to the Trump administration’s campaign of worksite immigration raids and courthouse arrests, which is reportedly being conducted at the demand of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Authorities have used flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets, and pepper balls on protesters, who have largely been non-violent. Trump used the protests as the basis for federalizing and deploying thousands of National Guard troops as well as hundreds of Marines.
“We have the IRS here that’s helping us track how these violent protesters are funded,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. “What NGO is out there? What unions? What other individuals may be funding these violent perpetrators?”
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Kiley argues the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) “played a pivotal role in enabling the riots.” He alleges that the group broadcast federal officers’ locations in real-time, and that several of the officers were assaulted with bricks and Molotov cocktails. Two people were charged with possession of Molotov cocktails, but there is no evidence they were tied to CHIRLA.
“They’re saying the most vicious lies [about] who we are and what we do,” CHIRLA’s Executive Director Angélica Salas told CBS News.
“My bill,” Kiley said Thursday on the House floor, “will assure that an organization like this whose officers are convicted of assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers, or of organizing, promoting, and encouraging participating in or carrying on a riot… loses their nonprofit status and is ineligible for federal funding going forward,”
Earlier this month, Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-Mo.), who is chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, launched an investigation into CHIRLA’s “alleged role in financing and materially supporting the coordinated protests and riots” in Los Angeles.
“While peaceful protest is a cornerstone of American democracy, these demonstrations have escalated into lawless mob actions,” he wrote in a letter to the organization demanding more information.
He noted that CHIRLA reportedly “received $34 million in state funding.” Their 2023 tax return shows they received this amount in government grants. The organization previously had a $450,000 contract with the Department of Homeland Security for “citizenship education and training.” DHS said it terminated this contract and intended to withhold $101,000 in funds that had not yet been paid to the group.
“Credible reporting now suggests that your organization has provided logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions,” Hawley said. “Let me be clear: Bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech. It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct.”
Salas, who leads CHIRLA, was a speaker at a press conference on June 6, when the first protests against ICE began, but that seems to be the extent of the group’s involvement.
“Our community is under attack and is being terrorized,” she told the crowd. “These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now.”
“We categorically reject any allegation that our work as an organization now and during the past 39 years providing services to immigrants and their families violates the law,” Salas said in a statement. “Our mission is rooted in non-violent advocacy, community safety, and democratic values. We will not be intimidated for standing with immigrant communities and documenting the inhumane manner that our community is being targeted with the assault by the raids, the unconstitutional and illegal arrests, detentions, and the assault on our First Amendment rights.”
From Rolling Stone US
