Who is behind America’s illegal immigration machine?” A question many Americans ask but rarely hear answered, obscured by a web of activist groups and political theater. For decades, the American Left has wrapped radical activism in the language of identity politics, presenting it as advocacy for Hispanics or immigrant communities. In reality, many of these groups function merely as vehicles advancing the agendas of foreign-aligned radicals.
Demographics have turned these groups into some of the Left’s most effective weapons. Hispanics represent the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, and conservatives, wary of alienating voters, have grown hesitant to confront these organizations directly — making them doubly valuable to the Left. They serve two purposes at once: generating agitation in the streets and presenting themselves as the voice of a powerful electoral bloc. And these groups don’t just agitate; they stage. Every protest is a performance, calculated for cameras and scattered throughout sympathetic media.
Following this summer’s Los Angeles riots (targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers), the funding question surfaced yet again. Frustrated conservatives’ hubbub even reached the halls of Congress, where Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) issued a series of letters to groups singled out as alleged instigators — namely the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and Unión del Barrio.
But the funding question only scratches the surface. To truly understand these groups, we have to follow not just the money but the ideas and networks that sustain them.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member