Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)

CHIRLA was involved in organizing some of the first downtown Los Angeles protests of June 2025 against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out Trump administration immigration-enforcement policies.  While CHIRLA denies any role in subsequent violent protests, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security launched an investigation into whether it or other nonprofit organizations used any government funding to support those protests. ⁴

History

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights was established in 1986 as the “Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles” following the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which made it unlawful for United States employers to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant. ¹ Even though it removed the “of Los Angeles” from its name before receiving 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in 1993, it is still commonly known by its original ‘CHIRLA’ acronym. ⁵  

Services for Immigrants

CHIRLA provides affordable and pro-bono legal services to individuals and families seeking to obtain lawful status in the United States, regardless of their immigration status at the time. Its attorneys guide immigrants and asylum-seekers through the U.S. immigration process, the required forms of documentation, and assist with any necessary paperwork. ⁶

CHIRLA’s “Removal Defense” program, formerly known as “Warriors for Justice,” provides legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation proceedings. CHIRLA attorneys defend these individuals during immigration court proceedings and work towards an alternative to a deportation and removal order. ⁷

The organization also operates a subsidiary in Mexico with offices in Mexico City, Tapachula, and Tijuana. Its staff in Mexico educates people who plan on attempting to migrate to the United States about the U.S. immigration system and broader society. ⁸

Policy Advocacy and Activism

CHIRLA promotes a variety of maximalist immigration policies including a path to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants, the defunding and abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and government-funded health care, education, and other programs to support immigrants. ^{2 3}

In the 2016 elections, CHIRLA claimed to have reached 127,000 people with voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. ¹

In May 2023, Florida passed a law strengthening requirements on employers to verify workers’ legal status, increasing penalties on immigrants who use false IDs or organizations that provide unauthorized ID documents to undocumented immigrants, prohibiting the use of out-of-state drivers’ licenses by undocumented immigrants in Florida, increasing penalties for human trafficking, and requiring hospitals to ask Medicaid patients about their residency statuses. ⁹ In response, CHIRLA and other left-of-center immigration policy organizations issued “travel advisories” encouraging immigrants not to visit the state, telling them that it was “not a safe place to visit.” ¹⁰

In June 2025, CHIRLA was one of 215 non-governmental organizations (NGO) the U.S House of Homeland Security Committee noted as having received federal funding during the Biden Administration to settle undocumented migrants in the United Stated while helping “fuel the worst border crisis in our nation’s history.” ¹¹ House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) and Subcommittee Chairman Josh Brecheen (R-OK) sent letters to the over 200 organizations demanding the full amount in “federal grants, contracts or payments” they received  “between Jan. 19, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2025” as well as additional information on potential legal action they might have taken against the Federal Government and all services they provided to undocumented migrants during that period of time. The letters further read “[t]he Committee remains deeply concerned that NGOs that receive U.S. taxpayer dollars benefitted from the border crisis created by the Biden Administration, and stand ready to do so under future Democrat administrations.” ^{11 12 4} The committee cited concerns over transparency and accountability in the disbursement and use of government grants, as well as the broader role of nonprofits and other groups in federal immigration response efforts. ¹³

Opposition to Trump Administration Immigration Policies

CHIRLA has been a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump and his administrations’ enforcement of federal immigration law. In an April 2019 letter addressed to American CEOs, CHIRLA joined a coalition of left-of-center organizations demanding that employers reject any applicant who has previously worked for the first Trump administration. ¹⁴

In March 2025, CHIRLA and two other immigration policy organizations filed a federal lawsuit challenging various second Trump administration immigration policies. The suit argued that some administration policies aimed at deporting undocumented immigrants violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guarantee to due process. ¹⁵

2025 Los Angeles Protests

In June 2025, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights was responsible for organizing one of the first protests in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out Trump administration immigration-enforcement policies. ⁴

Later demonstrations, which CHIRLA denies a role in organizing, involved violent protestors attacking police, burning vehicles, and looting businesses. ^{16 17} U.S. Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA) accused CHIRLA of encouraging and enabling this violence by “broadcasting the precise location of ICE operations in real time.” ¹⁸

In June 2025, CHIRLA was named in a letter from U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, as part of an inquiry into organizations allegedly connected to the Los Angeles protests. ^{19 20} Sen. Hawley accused the organization of potentially providing financial or logistical support to individuals participating in demonstrations related to immigration enforcement policies. ²¹

Through the letter, Sen. Hawley requested that CHIRLA and other recipient organizations preserve a broad range of records dating back to November 5, 2024, including internal communications, financial documents, contracts, travel arrangements, and donor information. The letter emphasized that facilitating or funding disruptive or unlawful protest activity could be considered aiding criminal conduct and warned of possible further legal consequences if the organizations failed to comply. ²¹

In response, CHIRLA denied any involvement in organizing the protests beyond participating in a press conference and rally, and its executive director Angelica Salas condemned the investigation as based on “vicious lies.” ¹³

During the same period, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly questioned whether nonprofit organizations such as CHIRLA and labor unions were financing the demonstrations. CHIRLA representatives also rejected these claims. ¹³

Funding

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights receives its funding from governments, foundations, individuals, and other donors. ⁵

It holds fundraising events, which netted $284,264 in 2023. ⁵  

Foundation Support

The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund has been a significant supporter of CHIRLA for many years. The fund’s website lists 22 grants to CHIRLA from 2010 through 2024, totaling $2,275,000. ²²

In 2024, the Weingart Foundation made a $3,000,000 capital grant to CHIRLA to support construction of a “Welcome & Empowerment Center.” ²³

The James Irvine Foundation has given a total of $1,325,000 in grants to CHIRLA as of 2023. ²⁴

CHIRLA has received funding from the Four Freedoms Fund donor collaborative operated by left-of-center pass-through funder NEO Philanthropy. ²⁵

Government Grants

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights receives a significant percentage of its overall funding from government grants. In 2023, CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in government grants, primarily from the State of California, accounting for roughly three-quarters of its $44.9 million in revenues. ^{4 5} In 2024, CHIRLA received $25.6 million in government grants, more than 80 percent of its $31 million in revenues. ⁵

In April 2025, two months before it helped launch Los Angeles anti-ICE protests, CHIRLA received a $100,000 grant from the Los Angeles city government. Between 2017 and 2025, CHIRLA received $1.28 million from Los Angeles, largely through the city’s “AB1290 Fund” that gives individual city councilmembers the authority to direct a certain percentage of property tax revenues to selected targets in their districts. ^{26 27}

In 2020, CHIRLA was chosen by the administration of California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) as one of 12 organizations to administer $175 million in COVID relief for undocumented immigrants. ¹

In 2018, the City of Los Angeles created an “LA Justice Fund” to fund legal defenses of immigrants living in Los Angeles who had been the subject of immigration law enforcement under the first Trump administration. ²⁸ The program, which is managed by the California Community Foundation (CCF), is a public-private partnership originally funded by the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California Community Foundation (CCF), and Weingart Foundation. ^{29 28}

According to a June 2025 post on X (formerly Twitter) from Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) requested that CHIRLA receive $2 million in federal grants. ³⁰ During the Biden administration, CHIRLA received $950,000 in federal grants. ³¹

Leadership

Angelica Salas is the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, serving in the position since 1999. She also sits on the executive committee for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) and on the board of directors of the California Wellness Foundation. ³²

Ester E. Hernandez is the board chair of CHIRLA as well as a professor of Anthropology at the California State University, Los Angeles. ³³  She took over the position after the previous board chair, Alma Salazar, passed away in 2020. ³⁴