When ICE conducted raids Friday morning at several locations in downtown Los Angeles, violent protests disrupted their operations at both the staging area at a Home Depot in Paramount and outside the targeted business in downtown. These incidents might have remained somewhat controlled if not for the participation of two influential and prominent leftist community leaders.
One such individual, SEIU California President David Huerta, was apprehended for obstructing federal officers by getting in the way of ICE agents. Following his arrest, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rep. Gil Cisneros, and other Democratic elected officials condemned the arrest.
Subsequently, Angelica Salas, Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), held a press conference advocating for widespread protests against ICE, which further heightened tensions and led to increased violence.
Hundreds of “protesters” turned into thousands of rioters before long, complete with matching t-shirts and professionally printed signs, signaling the involvement of organizations with some degree of funding behind them.
As Data Republican found, CHIRLA and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSLWEB) are two of the NGOs implicated in this ongoing riot.
CHIRLA and their friends at the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) are well-funded, and well-connected, and have been astroturfing protests against Donald Trump and his belief in upholding our country’s immigration laws for a decade now. I first encountered them outside the Luxe Hotel on July 10, 2015, when they organized a protest against Donald Trump when he spoke to the conservative Friends of Abe group just after announcing his candidacy. But guess whose YouTube channel has video from the event?
Yep, the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Attorney Laura Powell looked into CHIRLA’s funding and made some startling findings. Yes, there’s government money going into the org; that’s not startling. What is startling is the amount. According to a financial audit submitted to the State of California, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, CHIRLA took in $34 million from various government contracts, and 96 percent of the government funding was from the State of California. That amount is nearly three times the prior year’s government contract total. CHIRLA’s total revenue for the year ending June 30, 2023, was $45 million, meaning that 75.5 percent of its revenue came from government contracts.
Agencies contributing to CHIRLA’s funding during this period included the California Department of Social Services, the California Arts Council, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Yes, the Department of Homeland Security. Mayor Bass secured that contract for CHIRLA from her old pal (and Beverly Hills High School grad) Alejandro Mayorkas. Powell wrote:
In announcing that $450,000 federal grant, on August 30, 2024, Bass said:
“The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Clínica Romero, and the Central American Resource Center have been on the frontlines providing assistance to new immigrant arrivals in our city. I want to thank Secretary Mayorkas and the Department of Homeland Security for their partnership and for providing these organizations in the L.A. region with support to provide life-saving assistance.”
(There was $100,000 remaining on the grant when Donald Trump again took office. DHS froze the funding, CHIRLA sued, then DHS canceled the contract and the lawsuit was dropped.)
What were they doing with that money? Well, their efforts are centered in their newly-opened “Immigrant Welcome and Empowerment Center” in downtown Los Angeles, which Bass toured in May 2024.
What does this mean, @MayorOfLA @KarenBassLA?
What is @CHIRLA doing at that center to “advance justice and full inclusion for all immigrants”? pic.twitter.com/1B098c5TdN
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) June 8, 2025
According to their website, their core leadership development activities are:
- Wise Up! (youth leadership development program mentoring high school students in 15 Los Angeles schools).
- California Dream Network (mobilize college students in 30 California colleges and universities around immigration reform; boasts 5,000 veteran leaders).
- Contamos Contigo Census Campaign
- Disaster Assistance for Immigrants (to distribute COVID-19 aid)
- Organizing low-wage workers, including day laborers, street vendors, and domestic workers who do not reap the benefits of labor laws.
- LA Raids Rapid Response Network (focuses on advocacy, direct action to shut down detention centers, and connecting immigrants facing detention and deportation to legal representation).
Basically, our taxpayer dollars are going to train high school and college students in how to break immigration law and become Marxist agitators, to ensure illegal aliens are counted in the U.S. Census, to organize illegal aliens already in the country, and to fund their legal representation against deportation.
And that’s just in their leadership development section. They also have a filmmaking section, an affiliate organization in Mexico, the CHIRLA Action Fund (through which they can endorse political candidates), and more.
