US rights groups warn of Republican effort to undercut LA advocacy work
Source: The Guardian
Thu 12 Jun 2025 17.53 EDT
Last modified on Fri 13 Jun 2025 03.40 EDT
Immigration and civil rights organizations across the US are warning of a growing effort to undermine their advocacy work as rightwing lawmakers accuse them of fueling the demonstrations against federal raids in California. Advocacy groups voiced alarm on Thursday after Josh Hawley, a Republican US senator from Missouri, threatened multiple immigration and civil rights groups with investigations over claims that they are “bankrolling civil unrest” in Los Angeles.
Hawley, who chairs the senate subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism, accused the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (Chirla), the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as well as Unión del Barrio of their “alleged role[s] in financing and materially supporting the coordinated protests and riots that have engulfed Los Angeles in recent weeks”.
As part of a letter he wrote to the organizations, Hawley, who was famously captured raising his fist in a salute to supporters of Donald Trump outside at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, then later fleeing the mob after they invaded the building to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, said that “bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech”.
He referred to “credible reporting” that the organizations were providing logistical and financial support to “individuals” engaged in disruptive actions, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday, as Hawley followed up on a committee announcement in the House of Representatives that it will investigate 200 organizations it accuses of helping “inadmissible aliens” during the Biden administration.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/12/josh-hawley-la-protests-investigation