EXCLUSIVE: GOP Launches Investigation Into Taxpayer-Funded Group Allegedly Caught Teaching How To Avoid ICE

Congressional GOP leaders are demanding a non-profit organization explain how it has used taxpayer money after an undercover video purportedly showed its employees instructing audience members how to avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest.

The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), a behemoth non-profit group based in New York City, must hand over documentation and communication relating to its immigration seminars and explain how roughly a million dollars in taxpayer funds were used in the past several years, according to a House Homeland Security Committee letter first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The demands come as the Trump administration has made clear that overtly obstructing ICE operations will not be tolerated. (RELATED: Illegal Migrant Convicted Of Raping, Murdering Maryland Mother Of Five)

“The Committee on Homeland Security (Committee) is investigating the potential use of federal funds by non-government organizations (NGOs) to facilitate illegal immigration,” the House Homeland Security Committee letter began. “The Committee is deeply concerned that CPC and other NGOs that receive taxpayer dollars may be advising or training illegal aliens on strategies to avoid cooperation with immigration officials.”

The letter was authored by Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Oklahoma Rep. Josh Brecheen, chairman of the House Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Subcommittee. The demands were specifically directed at Wayne Ho, president of the CPC.

NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 18: Wayne Ho, president of the Chinese-American Planning Council, speaks during a press conference at the National Action Network’s House of Justice to denounce the rise of attacks against Asian Americans on March 18, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

The Oversight Project — an investigative organization launched by the Heritage Foundation that has since gone independent — released undercover footage on April 3 appearing to show CPC employees directing audience members on best practices to avoid ICE apprehension.

In the undercover video, Carlyn Cowen, the CPC’s chief policy and public affairs officer, was filmed explaining how to avoid immigration officials during a seminar. Janice Northia, a community engagement manager from the New York Immigration Coalition, was filmed giving an explainer on how to identify and minimize contact with ICE agents.

Northia has served as a trainer in numerous other know-your-rights seminars about ICE and has accused immigration agents of lying or using ruses to get inside people’s homes, according to the Gothamist.

Founded in 1965, the CPC serves to promote the interests of Chinese-American, immigrant and low income communities in New York City, according to its website. The group bills itself as the country’s largest Asian American social services organization that offers more than 50 “high-quality” programs at numerous sites across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Roughly 55% of CPC’s total revenue comes from federal and state government grants, according to the House Homeland Security Committee. The group has been awarded over $1.4 million in direct federal grants from the Department of Health and Human Services since 2022, and may have received more federal funding awarded through New York State.

“It’s bad enough for a far-left group to help those who break our laws evade apprehension by law enforcement — but it’s an abject travesty if even one cent of taxpayer dollars funded it,” Green and Brecheen said in a joint statement to the DCNF. “Taxpayers had to foot the bill for the historic border crisis for too long, and many even paid with their lives.”

“The House Committee on Homeland Security will be investigating this activity, and we will seek accountability if this report is found to be true,” the congressmen continued.

Oversight into the CPC comes as the Trump administration has taken a strong stance against sanctuary city governments and taxpayer-funded NGOs that are accused of facilitating illegal immigration.

Border czar Tom Homan previously told the DCNF that he would not hesitate to refer anyone who is knowingly concealing an illegal migrant from ICE officers for prosecution. Immediately upon entering office, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered Department of Justice (DOJ) to pull funding from sanctuary cities and called for an investigation into the funding of groups that provide assistance to illegal migrants.

The CPC must hand over all material related to their immigration seminars from November 2024 to present, all documentation relating to federal grants it’s received and subsequent expenditures from January 2021 to present, a list of all political appointees from the Biden administration involved in CPC federal funding discussions and numerous other documents.

The non-profit group must hand over the requested material on April 30 by 5 p.m.

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