The Biden Administration has awarded nonprofit The Acacia Center for Justice tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-backed contracts as the group works to fight deportation of illegal immigrants.
The Washington D.C.-based nonprofit was created due to a partnership between the Vera Institute of Justice and Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) and has received “legal services” contracts totaling more than $41 million from the Department of Justice beginning Sept. 1, according to Fox News.
The multimillion-dollar contracts were signed just a few months after the clandestine nonprofit organization received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service on July 29 determining its tax-exempt status, stating that the organization’s effective date was December 29, 2021.
The contracts currently in action will last through March of 2023 and if renewed, could funnel as much as $983 million to the group if they are renewed until March of 2027, according to the agreement reported on by Fox News.
Parent organization, the Vera Institute, reportedly views immigration enforcement agencies as a “threat” to personal liberties. Government-funded grants bring in $152 million of the Vera Institute’s $191 million in revenue between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, according to a recent financial audit.
The New York group has been open in its support of the defund the police movement and they also work to end “mass incarceration” by cutting the number of jails and prisons in the United States.
The Acadia Center for Justice has similar views stating that their goal is to “expand on Vera’s work over the past twenty years in providing legal support and representation to immigrants facing deportation through the development, coordination and management of national networks of legal services providers serving immigrants across the country.”
The group’s website states that, “The objective of the Acacia Center for Justice (“Acacia”) is to expand on Vera’s work over the past twenty years in providing legal support and representation to immigrants facing deportation through the development, coordination and management of national networks of legal services providers serving immigrants across the country,” the group’s website states.
“Acacia’s goals are two-fold: to support immigrant legal services and defense networks to provide exceptional legal services to immigrants and to advocate for the expansion of these programs and the infrastructure critical to guaranteeing immigrants access to justice, fairness and freedom,” the site says. “Acacia will focus the collective power of both Vera and CAIR on delivering accountable, independent, zealous and person-centered legal services and representation to protect the rights of all immigrants at risk of deportation.”
