Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is seeking over half a million in taxpayer funds for a New York City nonprofit group under congressional investigation for allegedly coaching people how to avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apprehension.
In a formal request letter to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Schumer requested a total of $600,000 for the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC). The liberal nonprofit group has been under public fire since a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation uncovered large sums of Chinese government-connected cash flowing to the group and its connection to an organization accused of promoting Chinese Communist Party interests. (RELATED: ‘The Stakes Are Real’: Border Hawks Counting On ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ To Reach Finish Line)
Schumer’s spending request — submitted to the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies in May and released by his office earlier in June — reflects federal funding priorities Congress members make every year. The Senate Minority Leader’s request was first flagged by the Washington Free Beacon.
“While I am not surprised Senator Schumer would make this request on behalf of a group aligned with Democrats’ anti-enforcement, open-borders agenda, I am disappointed he has maintained ties with the NGO, especially after reports also revealed that, in addition to using taxpayer dollars to help illegal aliens evade law enforcement, the group has also received funding from CCP-affiliated Chinese government officials,” House Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Josh Brecheen said Tuesday to the DCNF.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 28: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks briefly to reporters after a meeting with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol on July 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. Schumer said the Senate plans to hold a procedural vote on the bipartisan infrastructure legislation on Wednesday evening. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“We know the CCP has a clear motive to support efforts that undermine our nation’s sovereignty, and a U.S. senator should not be playing into its hands,” Brecheen continued.
Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
In April, the Oversight Project — an investigative group formerly connected with the Heritage Foundation — released video footage appearing to show a CPC employee coaching audience members on best practices to avoid ICE apprehension during a seminar. Carlyn Cowen, the CPC’s chief policy and public affairs officer, was filmed explaining several tips to an audience on how to avoid federal immigration officials, such as “hardening your physical space” and “identifying a list of individuals authorized to respond if ICE comes to the door.”
In response to the undercover footage, the House Homeland Security Committee in April launched an investigation into the CPC, demanding the NYC nonprofit hand over documentation and communication relating to its immigration seminars and explain to committee members how roughly one million dollars in taxpayer funds were used in the past several years.
Roughly 55% of the CPC’s total revenue comes from federal and state government grants, the House Homeland Security Committee previously revealed to the DCNF. The group has been awarded more than $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.
A DCNF investigation in May discovered that money flowed from Chinese government-linked entities’ coffers directly to the CPC.
The NYC nonprofit — established in 1965 to promote the interests of Chinese-American, immigrant and low income communities in NYC — has received as much as $445,969 in donations from sources with ties to the Chinese government since 2018, according to financial records reviewed by the DCNF. State-run enterprises such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Bank of China as well as other entities connected to the Chinese Community Party (CCP) have handed out financial assistance to the CPC in recent years, records show.
Image created by DCNF with ICE website screenshot
CPC is also closely linked with a nonprofit called the Committee of 100 (C100) through shared leadership and donations. While C100 claims merely to seek “constructive dialogue and relationships between the peoples of the United States and Greater China,” the nonprofit has been repeatedly accused of promoting the Chinese Communist Party’s interests, with one joint report by the Hoover Institution and Asia Society alleging that the Chinese Consulate tasks C100 with co-opting prominent Chinese-Americans.
The C100 later issued a statement condemning the DCNF’s investigation and suggested it reinforced “harmful stereotypes about the Chinese American community,” but did not dispute any specific reporting.
In the backdrop of the congressional investigation and Chinese government-connected funding, a watchdog group has questioned the CPC’s tax-exempt status.
The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) filed a complaint Monday with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), requesting a formal investigation into the group. CASA cited the anti-ICE seminars and the Chinese government-linked cash as reasons for the IRS to conduct a review of CPC’s tax-exempt status.
“While foreign donations for 501(c)(3) organizations within the United States are generally permissible, our concern is regarding the foreign donor organizations’ ties to the Chinese government and any potential connection between the Chinese government and the potentially illegal activity that CPC engages in, particularly since the alleged illegal conduct involves assisting foreign illegal aliens from evading enforcement action,” James Fitzpatrick, director of CASA, stated in a letter to the IRS.
A spokesperson for West Virginia GOP Sen. Shelley More Capito — chair of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies — did not respond to a request for comment about Schumer’s funding request.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include a statement from House Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Josh Brecheen.
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