Legal advocacy groups fighting to block the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws in New York have been funded with over $600 million in taxpayer money. The state and city governments of New York have funded at least four main advocacy groups to speak out against the Trump administration's immigration operations, according to a review of state and city contracts conducted by The New York Post.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to undermine public safety and our immigration laws," said Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella. "They are fighting to protect those who are dangerous criminals. It’s a poke in the eye to hard-working taxpayers."
The main allocation, more than $500 million of taxpayer funds, was awarded to the Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit that provides public defenders, through city contracts, according to The New York Post's review of city contracts from 2009 to present. The group also received an additional $32 million of state funding during that time, according to records from the state controller's office.
In March 2023, the Bronx Defenders issued a public apology and paid a $170,000 settlement after discriminating against a Jewish staffer. The group also faced serious backlash in 2014 when two attorneys from the group appeared in a rap video titled "Kill the NYPD." The video opened with two rappers holding guns to the head of an actor playing a white NYPD officer.
The Bronx Defender's website said, "Holistic defense recognizes that an advocate who is better able to relate to their client, by having spent time in their neighborhood and with members of their community, will be more likely to provide authentic and effective representation."
Make the Road NY received $56 million from state and city contracts to provide legal, health and other services, mainly to immigrants.
"In what can only be described as an all-out war on immigrant communities, we are enduring the worst attacks on basic civil liberties and human dignity in recent memory," said Make the Road NY's website on immigration. "This administration continues to target and criminalize immigrants of color and seek their deportation through aggressive immigration enforcement."
The group organized a rally in Albany in June urging lawmakers to pass a sanctuary bill as the crowd chanted, “No hate, no fear. Immigrants are welcome here.”
The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) received $46 million.
"Well, what we've seen is Donald Trump weaponize every federal law enforcement agency to be part of his mass deportation and family separation agenda," said Executive Director of the NYIC Murad Awadeh in an interview for NPR.
“Sanctuary policies are public safety measures,” he said. “They encourage people to participate within our society so that they’re able and comfortable enough to report things that are happening and without them, a lot of people won’t do that, because they are fearful, and rightfully fearful, especially in the world that we’re living in today, that they may end up entrapped in this ICE enforcement that’s happening.”
New Yorker Lawyers for the Public Interest also received $19 million, including about $5 million from 2022 to present, according to city and state records.
These advocacy groups have lobbied for a statewide sanctuary bill. "The New York for All Act" would bar state and local law enforcement from cooperating with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. Another proposal called "The Dignity not Detention Act" would prohibit local jails from allowing ICE to use their facilities.
“State leaders are not powerless against the federal administration’s mass deportation agenda,” the Bronx Defenders said in a June 11 statement on X. “We have a couple ideas: pass New York For All and Dignity Not Detention now, before it’s too late.”
State Representative Nicole Malliotakis said, “Non-governmental organizations that help shield criminals from deportation should not receive a single penny."
New York's Senate dismissed for the summer without passing either bill.
Malliotakis said, “While I don’t have much faith in Governor [Kathy] Hochul and New York Democrats to stop funding left wing groups who work against law enforcement and the interests of citizens, we’re taking decisive action on the federal level to end the Biden-Schumer gravy train of years past and put that money towards border security and enforcement to get foreign gangs and criminals out.”
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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