House GOP targets NY nonprofit over Know Your Rights training

Republicans in Congress are starting to come after nonprofits in New York who sponsor “Know Your Rights” training for immigrants as the federal government continues to deport large numbers of immigrants. 

The House Committee on Homeland Security last week launched a probe into the Chinese-American Planning Council, also known as CPC, over the social services nonprofit’s role in a March 8 Know Your Rights training in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Republican Rep. Mark Greene, the chair of the committee, sent a letter to CPC President and CEO Wayne Ho alerting him of the committee’s investigation into “the potential use of federal funds by non-government organizations (NGOs) to facilitate illegal immigration.”

Greene requested that Ho send a slew of documents to facilitate that investigation, including any materials used for the preparation of the March 8 training seminar or any other similar trainings since November of last year, copies of federal grant applications from 2021 on, and information on how CPC has spent federal funding. The letter offers an April 30 deadline to provide the requested documents. 

According to the letter, the CPC has received more than $900,000 in funding from the federal government since 2022. The investigation into the nonprofit could put future funding and grant applications in jeopardy, depending on its outcome.

The CPC caught the attention of congressional Republicans thanks to an “undercover” video released by the Oversight Project, a right-wing government accountability group that is part of the Heritage Foundation. Citing footage taken by the rightwing news outfit Muckraker of the Know Your Rights training in March, the Oversight Project described the seminar as a “radical activist meeting” where “antideportation leftists coordinate efforts to stop ICE and law enforcement from enforcing the nation’s immigration laws” and called the CPC a “radical New York-based NGO” that “should have no place receiving taxpayer dollars as they engage in anti-law, pro-illegal immigration activism.”

Know Your Rights trainings have become increasingly common in New York and around the country since President Donald Trump’s election and his promise of mass deportations. Many Democratic lawmakers have hosted or sponsored such seminars, in which organizers teach immigrants about the legal rights they can exercise when interacting with immigration agents. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in particular, has come under fire for hosting a training in which she advised immigrants that they don’t need to open their doors for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents – which is both true and legal if the agents don’t have a warrant signed by a judge. But conservatives have called for an investigation into the seminar and have accused Ocasio-Cortez of illegally aiding undocumented immigrants.

The news of the House committee’s letter to the CPC was first reported by the right-wing news website The Daily Caller, but the outlet did not indicate that it reached out to the nonprofit for comment. 

In his first public comment since receiving the letter, Ho defended his organization and the training it sponsored. “Our trainings help community members better understand their rights on a range of services, including education, healthcare, employment, housing, immigration, and more,” Ho said in a statement to City & State. “CPC fully adheres to all laws. Our trainings do not direct anyone to do anything or to evade the law, but rather to inform participants of their constitutional rights which they may choose to exercise.” He added that the nonprofit remains “committed to transparency and constructive dialogue with decision makers.”

Assembly Member Grace Lee, who co-sponsored the March training and represents part of Chinatown, slammed the investigation into the CPC. “The Trump administration’s sham investigation into CPC is a fascist move to undermine an organization providing critical services to the Asian American community,” Lee told City & State. “The Trump administration continues to drive policies that dismantle support systems our communities rely on and make the Asian American community suffer."

The video from the Oversight Project that prompted the congressional action also heavily featured Rep. Dan Goldman, who represents Lower Manhattan, was featured on promotional material for the training and has requested federal funding for the organization. A spokesperson for Goldman did not directly address the targeting of the CPC, but defended the type of training it participated in. “This Administration is sending undercover ICE officers wearing masks to arrest people, ‘mistakenly’ flying legal residents to super max prisons in foreign countries, and wrongly detaining American citizens,” Goldman spokesperson Madison Andrus said in a statement to City & State. “The Congressman would happily offer anyone in this Administration a similar tutorial on due process rights and the rule of law so that they can stop breaking the law and recklessly terrorizing legal residents in this country.”

A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, whom the video also featured, similarly did not directly address the apparent targeting of a prominent nonprofit in New York over immigration rights. But the spokesperson, Avi Small, offered support for efforts to educate people on their rights. “Governor Hochul has repeatedly said New York can help federal immigration officials arrest violent criminals, but will never support policies that rip families apart or target innocent children,” Small said. “Due process is the foundation of the American legal system, and Governor Hochul believes every single person deserves to know the rights they are granted under the United States Constitution.”