Los Angeles burned for two weeks last June while National Guard troops fought rioters in the streets.
The group that helped organize it went on a speaking tour to celebrate it.
And Congress handed them something while they were taking a bow.
Congress Investigated CHIRLA After the LA Riots and Got Nothing
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights – CHIRLA – filed tax records this week showing $8,726,683 in government grants for fiscal year 2024.
That's 35% of the group's total revenue – straight from your wallet.
In January 2025, CHIRLA partnered with the Service Employees International Union and other groups to build the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network – a ground operation that put activists on the street to intercept ICE agents during enforcement operations.
When ICE launched a June 6 surge in Los Angeles, the network activated.
SEIU leader David Huerta showed up and physically blocked federal vehicles.
Federal agents arrested him.
CHIRLA's executive director Angelica Salas held a press conference at a podium flanked by four LA city council members, a state assemblymember, and a state senator – all Democrats – and called for broad demonstrations against ICE.
Hundreds turned into thousands.
The riots spread across central California for days and cost somewhere between $32 million and $1 billion in damages, according to local and federal agencies.
Congress responded by sending letters.
The House Judiciary Committee demanded CHIRLA's financial records and internal communications. The House Homeland Security Committee sent its own letter. Sen. Josh Hawley threatened a criminal referral.
Salas called the letters "a coordinated effort to prevent us from doing the good and peaceful work that's part of the CHIRLA way."
Then she went to Kansas City for a standing-room-only speaking appearance and told the crowd that ICE only backed down "because of our sustained protests."
No subpoena ever arrived. No follow-up hearing was scheduled. The IRS and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli didn’t respond to press inquiries about the probe they announced. The FBI's Los Angeles field office declined to comment.
Three committees. Two federal agencies. One anti-ICE group collecting a bigger check than last year.
How Biden Turned CHIRLA Into an $80 Million Taxpayer Funded Machine
CHIRLA has received more than $80.6 million in government grants after Biden opened the border in January 2021 – part of a network of over 200 nonprofits the House Homeland Security Committee identified as recipients of federal funding that helped drive the Biden border crisis.
Biden's DHS handed CHIRLA $450,000 for "citizenship instruction and naturalization services." Another $250,000 for "innovations in citizenship education."
Trump cut that funding in March 2025 and tried to claw back $101,000 in unspent funds.
CHIRLA sued to stop it.
Courts upheld Trump's move. CHIRLA lost.
A group doesn't accumulate $80 million in government backing by losing one lawsuit. It gets there by embedding itself so deeply into the federal bureaucracy that cutting it feels impossible – and that's exactly what the Left engineered.
The Obama administration credentialed CHIRLA through the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2011, turning a left-wing advocacy group into an official government contractor overnight.
That single decision gave CHIRLA 15 years of institutional cover – and the runway to keep depositing public money while building networks designed to obstruct the very government writing the checks.
The Taxpayer Funded Anti-ICE Network Behind the LA Riots
CHIRLA isn't alone.
The 35 most prominent anti-ICE nonprofits in the country report combined annual revenues exceeding $425 million – sustained by government grants, left-wing foundations, and donor-advised funds.
Salas herself sits on Gavin Newsom's California Racial Equity Commission – appointed right around the time CHIRLA's state funding jumped by roughly $20 million.
In 2022 and 2024, CHIRLA's own headquarters served as an official LA County voting center.
Biden fed this machine $80 million. The Republican Congress that spent 2025 sending strongly-worded letters is still waiting on a response.
Angelica Salas ignored three congressional investigations, went on a speaking tour to celebrate the riots, and just filed paperwork showing she collected $8.7 million of your money in the same year she did it.
The Clintons ignored congressional subpoenas and caved the moment contempt proceedings became real.
CHIRLA never got that call.
Subpoenas aren't suggestions. Defunding isn't optional. A group that helped burn an American city shouldn't be collecting a single dollar from taxpayers – not while the ash is still settling, and not now.
Sources:
- Hudson Crozier, "Anti-ICE Group Received Millions From Taxpayers In A Year — Here's What We Got In Return," Daily Caller News Foundation, April 28, 2026.
- House Judiciary Committee Press Release, "Jordan, McClintock, and Biggs Open Inquiry into Activist Groups Funding LA Riots with Taxpayer Grants," Judiciary.house.gov, June 24, 2025.
- House Committee on Homeland Security Press Release, "Chairmen Green, Brecheen Launch Probe into 200+ NGOs," Homeland.house.gov, June 11, 2025.
- "Senator Hawley Investigates California Group for Alleged Funding of LA Protests," Fox News, June 11, 2025.
- Jennifer Van Laar, "NGO Linked to Funding LA's Anti-ICE Riots Also Has Interesting Connections With CA Redistricting," RedState, August 18, 2025.
- "More Than ICE: The Protest Industrial Complex Behind the Anti-ICE Movement," Capital Research Center, March 21, 2026.
