Your Tax Dollars at Work: How California Funded Its Own Riots — $73.6 Million in State Money Flows to Groups Behind LA Violence
As Mayor Karen Bass lifts the curfew in Los Angeles after days of violent riots, a key question remains: who funded the unrest? While Chinese Communist Party–linked money flows through hidden networks, California taxpayers have also unknowingly financed the very groups that blocked federal agents and fueled the chaos.
The numbers are staggering, and the betrayal is undeniable.
Government watchdog Open The Books revealed that California handed out $73.6 million to anti-deportation groups in just 2023 and 2024. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), a lead organizer behind the riots, received nearly half: $35 million. In effect, residents are paying to destroy their own communities.
“I’m formally requesting the Legislature audit the extent to which LA’s riots are being bankrolled by a taxpayer-subsidized nonprofit,” said Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez. “There is zero excuse for our tax dollars to go towards these riots.”
CHIRLA’s public funding soared from $12.4 million in 2022 to $34 million in 2023, a 174% increase that coincided with rising anti-American activism. According to CHIRLA’s tax filings, 96% of its revenue comes from California taxpayers through state contracts for “immigration-related services.”
So, what are taxpayers actually funding?
They’re paying for CHIRLA’s “Warriors for Justice” deportation defense squad, the “Wise Up!” program that teaches high schoolers to become activists, and the “Removal Defense Team” that blocks immigration enforcement. Tax dollars are supporting a network designed to undermine U.S. sovereignty.
CHIRLA’s own website spells it out: their mission includes “challenging anti-immigrant legislation,” “reducing immigration enforcement,” and “investing in immigrant communities.” Translation: using taxpayer money to fight federal law.
And CHIRLA is just one piece of a much larger system. The full $73.6 million California has allocated forms a statewide ecosystem of resistance to immigration enforcement. This includes $24 million directed specifically toward deportation defense, $37 million in legal services for both legal and illegal immigrants, and another $25 million authorized by Governor Gavin Newsom in early 2025, most of it aimed at shielding illegal immigrants from removal.
Even the federal government played a role. Before President Trump cut them off, the Department of Homeland Security, ironically the same agency now being protested, granted CHIRLA $1.2 million for “citizenship instruction and naturalization services.” When Trump took office, DHS attempted to freeze the remaining $100,000 from a prior grant. CHIRLA responded with a lawsuit, and DHS was forced to cancel the contract entirely.
CHIRLA draws funding from multiple sources: state grants, federal contracts, private foundations, and public-private partnerships like the Los Angeles Justice Fund, a collaboration between the City of Los Angeles, LA County, and liberal donors. This creates a murky web where taxpayer money mixes with private funds to bankroll anti-government activities under a veil of deniability.
California is quite literally funding the political radicalization of its own youth. Financial records further expose a “Rapid Response Network” that deploys taxpayer-funded teams of immigration lawyers, legal observers, and activists to disrupt ICE operations. Even CHIRLA’s social media, subsidized by the state, encourages illegal activity, instructing followers: “If you see ICE in LA, don’t stay silent. Report it to the LA Rapid Response Network.” In effect, California is sponsoring a coordinated effort to obstruct federal law enforcement.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has launched a broader investigation into this misuse of taxpayer funds, examining over 200 NGOs that received billions to support illegal immigrants. “Under the Biden Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services funneled billions to NGOs providing transportation, translation, and housing to illegal aliens nationwide,” the investigation found.
CHIRLA’s spike in government funding coincided with more radical activity. The group promoted California’s Proposition 47, which reclassified drug possession, fraud, and theft from felonies to misdemeanors, helping criminal noncitizens avoid deportation. “Prop 47 could help clean your criminal record,” CHIRLA advertised with taxpayer money, noting it could protect noncitizens from removal.
Financial records reveal a shift from service provider to political machine. In 2023, CHIRLA gave away $1.14 million in grants but spent $391,001 on just two top staff members, and more on office expenses than on direct assistance, raising serious concerns about how taxpayer money is being used.
The corruption reaches the top of California’s political class. In May 2024, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass secured DHS contracts for CHIRLA and toured its publicly funded “Immigrant Welcome and Empowerment Center.” She later appeared alongside CHIRLA leaders at protests that turned into riots, declaring, “We will fight for all Angelenos regardless of when they came here, where they are from, or how they got here.”
Bass has since repeated this message during the recent ICE raids and ongoing unrest in LA. When she pledges to fight for everyone, including those in the country illegally, she’s doing so with taxpayer money. U.S. Senator Josh Hawley has launched a congressional investigation, demanding CHIRLA’s internal communications and financial records to expose the extent of taxpayer-funded riot coordination.
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