Josh Hawley, a senator, threatened multiple organizations with inquiries, claiming they were ‘bankrolling civil unrest’
Immigration and civil rights organizations across the US are warning of a growing effort to undermine their advocacy work as rightwing lawmakers accuse them of fueling the demonstrations against federal raids in California.
Advocacy groups voiced alarm on Thursday after Josh Hawley, a Republican US senator from Missouri, threatened multiple immigration and civil rights groups with investigations over claims that they are “bankrolling civil unrest” in Los Angeles.
Hawley, who chairs the senate subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism, accused the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (Chirla), the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as well as Unión del Barrio of their “alleged role[s] in financing and materially supporting the coordinated protests and riots that have engulfed Los Angeles in recent weeks”.
As part of a letter he wrote to the organizations, Hawley, who was famously captured raising his fist in a salute to supporters of Donald Trump outside at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, then later fleeing the mob after they invaded the building to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, said that “bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech”.
