California Pumped Tens of Millions into Immigration NGOs that Fight Deportation, Track ICE and more…

As federal agents are confronted by riots in Los Angeles over the arrest and deportation of criminal illegal aliens, it is worth exploring how the state, and even the federal government, have been funding nonprofits that facilitate migration and advocate for open borders policies locally and nationwide.

Over just the past two years, the state of California poured tens of millions of dollars into nonprofits involved in immigration/refugee advocacy and legal services. Just five key non-governmental organizations documented here received $73.6 million in 2023 and 2024, and all of them include deportation defense in their work.

They’re also all 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofits, meaning they are restricted in the amount of time they can devote to political advocacy. Nevertheless, many participate in advocacy at the state and/or federal level, with some emphasizing policy work in states other than California. These organizations represent only a portion of nonprofits receiving funding related to immigration legal support and advocacy.

The spending cycle becomes more perverse when federal funds also flow to these nonprofits, empowering them to advocate for federal and state policies that then precipitate more of their own activities and further public funding.

Open the Books compiled state spending figures through our California checkbook, a collection of line-by-line expenditures across state-level entities.

[Use our database to search for even more spending to problematic nonprofits in California and nationwide.]

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA): $35,226,566

CHIRLA has been identified on X by California-based attorney Laura Powell as an organization that is particularly involved in the LA riots and “resistance” to federal immigration law enforcement. Powell noted CHIRLA’s strong relationship with California and L.A. government leadership, including Mayor Karen Bass; and she outlined how the nonprofit leads a coalition hotline where members of the public can send in tips on the location of ICE agents and a rapid response network deploys activists.

More details on the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network and how it verifies reports of ICE activity and “mobilizes support” here.

As similar warnings have spread across social media, immigration czar Tom Homan has expressed frustration with those interfering with federal authorities and potentially endangering ICE agents.

Aside from their current activities fomenting unrest in L.A., CHIRLA runs many different campaigns and programs as a part of their regular operations, including the “Wise Up!” program to teach high schoolers how to become activists. The CHIRLA website states this program is an “initiative to organize high school students—both undocumented and allies—around immigrant rights, and full access to educational opportunities.” The website further states WiseUp! “activates students” by “engaging them civically to fight in the legislative arena and the public square for measures that ease their access to education and citizenship.”

SIDENOTE: Curricula from The Representation Project, a nonprofit founded by First Partner Jennifer Seibel Newsom, similarly have encouraged a student-to-activist pipeline.

CHIRLA conducts policy advocacy by using the organization’s resources and networks to support bills and budgets that advance their priorities. The organization's "policy values" include: “challenge anti-immigrant legislation,” “reduce immigration enforcement,” and “invest in immigrant communities.”

CHIRLA works on the local, state, and federal level to accomplish these goals. For example, in 2023 CHIRLA leadership reached out to elected officials in California state to create the “Storm Assistance for Immigrants program and a $20 million recovery fund allocated by the California State Assembly,” according to an article in Triple Pundit. “It was the first time ever that there was a fund, a disaster recovery fund, specifically for undocumented folks” said CHIRLA external affairs director Vladimir Carrasco, in an interview.

CHIRLA also has an “action fund” sister 501(c)4 nonprofit that can creates campaigns to pass bills and endorses political candidates.

Spending by California State Agency (per Open the Books checkbook data):

2023:

Arts Council…………………………………..…………...$19,000.00
Office of Emergency Services……………….…….$116,831.00
Department of Business Oversight…………….$177,300.00
Department of Social Services…………………...$34,784,735.00

2024:

Department of Business Oversight……………..$109,700.00

The federal government’s Department of Homeland Security also granted CHIRLA $450,000 in 2023 for “citizenship instruction and naturalization services,” which was later cancelled by the Trump administration.

Immigrant Legal Resources Center (ILRC): $29,869,668

ILRC is an immigration law firm specializing in criminal defense to prevent deportation. According to the website:

“The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is one of only a few technical assistance organizations nationally and in California with expertise on immigrant post-conviction relief, including clean slate and other record clearance remedies. Immigrants with criminal convictions are more vulnerable than any other group to being a target for deportation and make up the overwhelming majority of deportations that occur in any year.”

Of course, the Trump administration has long articulated that its focus is first on deporting immigrants with criminal records.

ILRC also has an advocacy program focused on policy work in the states of Texas and California, and at the federal level.

The organization is focused on three advocacy pillars:

“1) dismantling the arrest to deportation pipeline and disrupting racial disparities in the immigration and criminal legal systems;

2) expanding immigration law to improve protections from deportation and access to immigration relief; and

3) preserving and expanding access to legal services and opportunities for citizens and non-citizens to engage in the political process.”

ILRC has developed many resources to achieve its policy objectives. One recent “community resource” is called, “Resisting Authoritarianism: Our Collective Struggle Against Trump’s Escalating Attacks on Immigrant Communities.”

Spending by California State Agency (per Open the Books checkbook data):

2023:
Judicial Branch……………………………………$1,735.00
Department of Social Services……………$22,638,435.07

2024:

Judicial Branch…………………………….…….$2,000.00
Department of Social Services……………$7,227,498.13

Immigration Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA): $7,107,126

Immigration Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA) provides similar legal services as the other organizations on this list, which includes applications for naturalization, citizenship, family reunification, and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhoold Arrivals) renewal.

While IIBA does not appear to be as involved in policy advocacy as others on this list, the nonprofit also sponsors, and co-launched, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office's Immigration Defense Fund, which provides services to those facing deportation.

Spending by California State Agency (per Open the Books checkbook data):

2023:
Department of Education……………….$19,255.00
Department of Social Services………..$2,716,376.81

2024:
Department of Education………………..$35,467.00
Department of Social Services…………$4,336,027.27

The federal government’s Department of Homeland Security granted IIBA $300,000 in 2024 for “citizenship instruction, naturalization application services, and immigration integration in the greater San Francisco Bay area” which appears to still be active.

Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef): $631,600

Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) was co-founded by Susan Alva, who, according to her website bio, “played a key role in the founding of CHIRLA,” another group on this list. While the group represents individuals in immigration proceedings, policy advocacy is a major goal of the ImmDef as well. According to their website: “we recognized the need to not only help individuals facing deportation, but also work towards systemic change that reimagines a more just immigration system.”

ImmDef is focused on preventing deportation for criminal noncitizens. The nonprofit states it is particularly interested in taking cases that can “refine, clarify, and extend the law, as we recently demonstrated in People v. Manzanilla, where a California Court of Appeal issued a published decision clarifying key legal issues that impact noncitizens seeking to vacate immigration-adverse convictions.” In other words, ImmDef seeks to establish legal precedent to prevent deportation of criminal noncitizens through litigation.

In fact, ImmDef has a program called “Litigation and Advocacy,” “with the goal of creating systemic change to dismantle the systems that seek to deport our clients and separate our families.” On its Litigation and Advocacy webpage the nonprofit lists many lawsuits launched against the current and former Trump administrations.

All of ImmDef’s California funding came from the Department of Social Services ($64,400 in 2023 and $567,200 in 2024).

Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN): $772,800

According to the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) website, “SIREN is a vehicle for low-income immigrants and refugees in California—to be their own agents for change. We do this through community education and organizing, leadership development, legal services, policy advocacy, and civic engagement.”

The nonprofit provides some free legal consultations, but its primary work seems to be policy advocacy, organizing protests, and encouraging “civic engagement” among immigrant populations.

Some activities from their website include:

• Creating “organizing hubs” to organize “families and individuals to engage in immigrant integration advocacy at the local, state, and national levels, as well as develop their own base to make local changes to issues that impact themselves and family.”

• The “Multiethnic Immigrant and Youth Community Organizers” program, which “educates and organizes immigrants and youth on state and federal issues. Leaders are responsible for organizing and engaging their ethnic community base.”

• Working to “shift the political landscape in Northern California and the Central Valley by mobilizing immigrant and youth vote in elections.”

SIREN’s policy priorities include challenging “the constant attack of state budget cuts that directly impact the immigrant community such as Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, Food Stamps, and other programs that aim to end poverty.”

In reference to the Trump administration’s actions to enforce immigration law in LA this week, SIREN published a press release to “call on our allies and people across the country to continue to raise their voices in opposition and mobilize to protect their communities from this abuse of power.”

All of SIREN’s California funding came from the Department of Social Services ($466,200 in 2023 and $306,600 in 2024).

Conclusion

While this list is not comprehensive, it is a key sampling of the kinds of outside groups regularly winning funding from the state of California.

In this report alone, we’ve documented that these groups go on to: attempt to obstruct the work of ICE, endangering agents; sue the government and seek legal precedent to vacate deportation orders; encourage immigrants to “mobilize” against the Trump administration; work to “reduce immigration enforcement”; and challenge “anti-immigrant legislation.” There’s also the ever-popular buzzword on the Left: “dismantling” systems that lead to deportation.

By funding these organizations, the state of California has exacerbated some of the problems the federal government is now working to fix – up to and including the protests themselves, which have devolved into rioting despite what California leaders may say. Through activist litigation and policy advocacy, these organizations have impact across the country, not just in California.

Taxpayers should not have to fund lawsuits against their own states, municipalities and federal agencies, incurring further costs in a vicious cycle. Nor should they have to fund nonprofits that agitate for more public services, again spending money to cost us money. And in no circumstances should organizations receive public dollars only to try to thwart federal law enforcement.

These and similar NGOs should be scrutinized by the state assembly before they receive future funding. They also provide an opportunity for DOGE to identify savings (among these and similar organizations) for future appropriations.

Image citation: By U.S. Northern Command - https://x.com/USNorthernCmd/status/1932486627060035616/photo/1, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=167363221

FURTHER READING:

Cash for Migrants: FEMA Not the Only Agency Spending Big | Open the Books | 13 February 2025