WASHINGTON — A former senior aide to New York Attorney General Letitia James is now leading a liberal nonprofit that supports training programs aimed at countering ICE activities. Some of these programs have encouraged participants to disrupt federal immigration operations and use encrypted communication to avoid sharing potentially incriminating details.
Anna Brower, who served as James’ chief of staff until September, is now the president of the Hopewell Fund. This organization is part of a larger network of left-leaning philanthropic groups, often referred to as “dark money” due to their opaque funding sources. Arabella Advisors will manage this network through 2024.
In its latest financial disclosures, the Hopewell Fund reported distributing over $91 million in grants in support of civil rights, social action, and advocacy. It also acts as the fiscal sponsor for an initiative known as States at the Core.
Since the second inauguration of President Trump, States at the Core claims to have trained over 12,000 individuals through its ICE Watch seminars. The exact amount of funding Hopewell has allocated to this organization since its inception in November 2024 remains unspecified, as reported by the New York Times.
Anna Brower emphasized, “Our mission is centered on upholding human dignity and safety, and we strongly discourage any actions that disrupt or interfere with law enforcement activities.” She shared this perspective in a statement to The Post.
However, conservative watchdog groups have raised concerns. Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust (APT), argues that these seminars have intentionally advised protesters to hinder enforcement operations, which could potentially violate federal law.
“The IRS has made clear that nonprofits cannot fund illegal acts, and that specifically includes deliberately blocking traffic and disrupting government work,” Sutherland said.
States at the Core has urged protesters to form local rapid response groups that swiftly report — but have been seen at times to hamper — federal immigration arrests, which often characterized as “kidnappings” or “abductions,” training materials reviewed by The Post show.
A slide deck from one October training instructed participants to get as much “identifiable information” as possible from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including “how many present, names, badge numbers, weapons they are carrying or using, vehicle descriptions, license plates.”
The presentation was co-hosted by States at the Core and Protect Rogers Park, a Chicago-based group founded during the first Trump administration to “resist” immigration enforcement.
One of Protect RP’s leaders, Jill Garvey, serves as co-director of States at the Core.
Other slides did caution ICE Watchers to not “interfere in any way.”
“If law enforcement continues to tell you to get back, continue to take one step back while repeating this,” one stated. “You have the right to observe as long as you are not interfering with law enforcement activity. Turn your camera to the ground to document yourself moving back.”
But those instructions have been contradicted by other trainings and the actions of members of ICE Watch groups in cities like Minneapolis — which became ground zero for the clash between Trump’s mass deportations agenda and left-wing agitators in recent months.
A June 2025 training handout from Protect RP said one of the primary goals should be to “slow” immigration officers down by “getting in the way with a few bodies” and forming a “blockade” against the feds when five or more ICE Watchers are present.
That should also involve blowing whistles, “surrounding the victim” and “surrounding the vehicle,” slides noted.
“Every American has the right to peacefully protest,” Sutherland noted when asked about the training, “but it does not include the right to prevent government officials from doing their jobs.”
Private chat groups on the Signal messaging app also help facilitate what the ICE Watch groups have referred to as the exercising of their “legal right to observe,” while warning group participants to not “incriminate yourself or others” in the process.
“We are not lawyers,” an additional slide deck cautioned. “We rely on the collective knowledge of our community to provide guidance in training for ICE Watch.”
Sutherland and other conservatives have targeted Hopewell and NEO Philanthropy — which received a $185,000 grant for program support related to States at the Core in 2024 — for propping up left-wing demonstrations in the US, with a recent congressional hearing focusing on how even some foreign funding has been assisting domestic nonprofits.
Last week, APT disclosed during a House Ways and Means hearing focused on foreign funding of US nonprofits that Hopewell took $2.8 million from the Switzerland-based Oak Foundation, Fox News reported.
That comes after the Trump Justice Department set its sights last year on criminal probes of lefty entities like George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
One of the foundations backed by the liberal billionaire has contributed millions of dollars to Hopewell in the past.
Two members of ICE Watch groups — Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 — were fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis last month.
In both incidents, the officers had given the anti-ICE demonstrators directions that were not followed.
Good was asked to exit her vehicle before accelerating it in the direction of an ICE officer who opened fire on her.
A Border Patrol agent shot and killed Pretti, who was carrying a loaded Sig Sauer pistol, during “a struggle” after the ICU nurse “resisted” officers and ignored “several verbal requests” to move out of a street during an enforcement operation, a preliminary Department of Homeland Security review found.
Rhetoric from Trump administration officials further inflamed the situation in the days following the shootings, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claiming Good and Pretti’s actions constituted “domestic terrorism.”
Democratic officials like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey rejected that ICE agents were lawfully arresting and removing criminal illegal aliens.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan was later dispatched to quell unrest and meet with local and state officials before authorizing the withdrawal of hundreds of agents from the Twin Cities last week.
James is one of several prominent Democratic officials criticizing ICE tactics in her jurisdiction. Earlier this month, her office launched its own Legal Observation Project to monitor federal immigration enforcement actions in New York.
“We have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability,” James said. “My office is launching the Legal Observation Project to examine federal enforcement activity in New York and whether it remains within the bounds of the law.”
Reps for States at the Core did not respond to requests for comment.
