Josh Hawley investigates groups allegedly linked to Los Angeles rioters

Sen. Josh Hawley has launched a probe into who is funding the violent anti-Immigration and Customs and Enforcement protesters in Los Angeles.

The Missouri Republican wrote a letter to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights on Wednesday about its “alleged role in financing and materially supporting the coordinated protests and riots” in L.A.

His letter came after a report from the nonprofit transparency group Open the Books that examined five immigration nonprofits that received $73.6 million in public funds from California in 2023 and 2024.

The report found that CHIRLA was a top recipient of the funds, $35 million, and took part in a 2018 movement, Abolish ICE. It also heads the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network, used to report sightings of ICE agents.

The coalition also received $450,000 in 2023 for “citizenship instruction and naturalization application services” as part of the Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program through the federal government.

“Who is funding the L.A. riots? This violence isn’t spontaneous,” Mr. Hawley, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism, wrote on social media when announcing his investigation.

In his letter to Angelica Salas, executive director of the coalition, he said “credible reporting” is what suggested that the organization “has provided logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions.”

“Let me be clear: bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech. It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct. Accordingly, you must immediately cease and desist any further involvement in the organization, funding or promotion of these unlawful activities,” Mr. Hawley wrote.

The coalition objected.

“We categorically reject any allegation that our work as an organization, recently and during the past 39 years, providing services to immigrants and their families violates the law,” Ms. Salas said in a statement.

 “Our mission is rooted in non-violent advocacy, community safety, and democratic values. We will not be intimidated for standing with immigrant communities and documenting the inhumane manner that our community is being targeted with the assault by the raids, the unconstitutional and illegal arrests, detentions, and the assault on our First Amendment rights,” she said.

Later Wednesday, he posted two more letters he sent to groups, including the Party for Socialism & Liberation and Union del Barrio, which defends Mexican and other Latin American communities, according to its Instagram account.

The letters request the organizations provide internal communications and financial documents related to protest planning, coordination or funding, along with third-party contracts linked to the protests.

It asks for grant applications and funding proposals from the organizations that relate to immigration, travel and lodging records for individuals or groups supported by or reimbursed by the organization, donor lists and any media planned in connection to immigration.

The letter says failure to provide the information could result in the “potential referral for criminal investigation.”

The Washington Times has reached out to the organizations for comment.

Thousands have gathered in L.A. to protest the ICE raids across the city. Some have turned violent, burning cars and damaging property, and even injured officers.

Hundreds have been arrested, and President Trump has sent in the National Guard and Marines to try and get things under control. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass have criticized the presence of the military, saying it’s making tensions rise.

Still, the mayor imposed a curfew in her city.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this week that the president supports peaceful protest but won’t stand for “violence of any kind; he does not support assaulting law enforcement officers who are simply trying to do their jobs.”

“The president supports the right of Americans to peacefully protest, he supports the First Amendment, but that is not the majority of the behavior that we have seen taking place in Los Angeles,” Ms. Leavitt said Wednesday. “We have seen mobs of violent rioters and agitators assaulting law enforcement officers, assaulting our federal immigration authorities.”

The president has slammed the violent protesters in L.A. as “bad people.”