The Department of Homeland Security is financially supporting one of the groups organizing protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division within DHS itself, according to a Sunday report.
Natalie Winters of War Room revealed on X that the Biden administration awarded a $450,000 project grant to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), the organization behind some of the L.A. demonstrations and others in recent weeks.
CHIRLA has been engaging in and staging protests opposing ICE. Protesters with CHIRLA carry signs saying “Stop deportations: full rights for immigrants,” “ICE: out of our communities,” “Education not Deportation,” “Stop the starvation, stop the deportations,” and “The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go Now.”
At one point on Saturday, CHIRLA representatives spoke to a crowd. “Our community is under attack and has been terrorized,” said CHIRLA executive director Angelica Salas. “These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers.” Of the initial award, $100,000 remains to be disbursed to the group.
On Friday, Salas spoke at a press conference of the CHIRLA-run LA Rapid Response Network “following the series of ICE raids conducted” that morning. On Facebook, publicizing the remarks, CHIRLA wrote “To our immigrant community: we see you, we hear you, and we will NOT stop fighting for you. We say NO deportations. NO to mass detentions. Families belong together! We belong here!”
Salas spoke about the group’s “indignation as to what happened in our city, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces. Our community is under attack and is being terrorized.”
“These are workers,” Salas continued, “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.
“My call today is to all US citizens, because I want you to know if our rights are violated, if our constitutional rights are violated, if our due process rights are violated, then anybody’s right can be violated.