Evidence suggests LA “riots” over ICE raids could be government‑funded

What many outlets initially framed as an impromptu riots over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles (LA) has now been linked to a far more organized and well-financed effort.

An investigative thread by the social-media account “Data Republican” lays out a detailed funding trail that stretches from progressive nonprofits to radical socialist fronts—and even to a billionaire with a record of amplifying Chinese Communist Party narratives. The picture that emerges is not one of organic outrage, but of a coordinated push backed in part by taxpayer dollars.

At the heart of this financial web is the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). Public disclosures show CHIRLA’s government grants ballooning from roughly $12 million to $34 million in a single fiscal year—an astonishing jump that raises questions about how much public money ends up underwriting protest infrastructure. Most of that cash appears to come from the State of California, though federal grants to the group total nearly half a million dollars.

Footage from the weekend unrest captured professionally printed placards and banners bearing both CHIRLA’s branding and slogans associated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).

PSL is an openly Marxist organization that does not register as a nonprofit and publishes no standard financial disclosures, making its funding sources effectively invisible.

Data Republican’s thread argues that the “Answer Coalition”—often cited as PSL’s public-facing arm—funnels money from wealthy ideological allies into on-the-ground protest logistics such as buses, placards, and stipends for demonstrators.

That funding trail, the thread claims, ultimately leads to Neville Singham, a billionaire tech entrepreneur and self-described socialist long criticized for financing media projects that echo Beijing’s foreign-policy talking points.

Singham has reportedly steered well over $20 million into a constellation of activist groups, including organizations involved in the recent Columbia University campus occupations.

The suggestion is that the same financial network helped energize the Los Angeles protests—with its most militant factions attacking federal officers, blocking traffic, and burning American flags.

CHIRLA’s executive director, Angelica Salas, gave a fiery speech during the demonstration, declaring, “Our community is under attack and has been terrorized.

These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers.” Critics, however, say CHIRLA’s rhetoric masks the fact that the group receives substantial public funding while cooperating with ideologically extreme partners. The nonprofit processes donations through ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s major digital fundraising platform, underscoring its deep ties to national progressive politics.

Political overlap does not stop there. Representative Adam Schiff—now running for the U.S. Senate—shared the stage with CHIRLA leaders during his 2024 campaign, courting the group’s endorsement. Conservative analysts argue that such alliances tacitly legitimize the harder-left forces that later surface at street protests.

Labor also had a seat at the table. SEIU-California’s president was reportedly arrested during the weekend unrest, illustrating how union muscle can feed into street-level activism. While SEIU’s war chest derives primarily from member dues, its on-the-ground presence lent institutional heft to protests that mainstream headlines first depicted as spontaneous flash mobs.

Meanwhile, the Million Voters Project amplified calls for the demonstration across social media. MVP describes itself as a voter-mobilization vehicle funded by private foundations, but it aligns closely with the broader “democracy-reform” agenda championed by high-dollar donors on the progressive left.

Though MVP does not rely on taxpayer dollars, its role shows how quickly professionally managed advocacy groups can turn online impulses into real-world disruptions.

Zooming out, Los Angeles (LA) Mayor Karen Bass also features in Data Republican’s research. Before winning City Hall, Bass served as vice-chair of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S. government-funded NGO well known for bankrolling political projects overseas.

Critics contend that Bass’s background in “soft-power” networks—and her unscathed entanglement in the USC scholarship scandal that ensnared Mark Ridley-Thomas—illustrates why political insiders seldom face lasting consequences.

Taken together, the evidence suggests the weekend action was neither impromptu nor isolated. Rather, it drew on a sophisticated patchwork of nonprofits, unions, and ideological outfits—some flush with taxpayer cash, some funded by wealthy activists—working in tandem to set the stage for confrontation.

Federal officers injured in clashes, city arteries strangled by protesters, and video of flag burning were not accidental byproducts of a peaceful rally gone wrong; they were foreseeable outcomes of a mobilization strategy honed over years.

Taxpayers may be footing part of the bill. When government grants swell nonprofit budgets, money is fungible: dollars marked for community “education” can free up unrestricted funds for street operations. Likewise, donors who bankroll one entity can indirectly finance affiliated groups that specialize in protest choreography.

The challenge for lawmakers is that most of these transfers, while morally questionable to critics, remain legal under current campaign-finance and nonprofit rules.

For residents of Los Angeles (LA), the bigger question is whether city and state leaders will scrutinize how public funds are piggy-backing onto radical agendas.

Ignoring that overlap risks normalizing riots masquerading as grassroots activism—and leaves ordinary citizens to deal with the fires, roadblocks, and spiraling costs that follow in their wake.

The Los Angeles (LA) episode stands as a warning: what looks like a spontaneous march may in fact be the visible tip of a much larger, well-oiled machine—one powered by ideological billionaires, politically connected nonprofits, and taxpayer money that few voters realize is in play. Until funding pipelines face real oversight, similar explosions of choreographed turmoil are likely to recur on America’s streets.

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