Organizations selected for a multi-million-dollar grant from the Biden administration are now advising illegal immigrants on how to avoid deportation.
Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) and its affiliate, Stop AAPI Hate — which have vowed to “fight” and “resist” what they deem the “racist” agenda of the Trump administration — were picked to receive a $2 million Department of Justice (DOJ) grant in 2024. The organization is now distributing materials instructing illegal immigrants to refuse to open the door to ICE agents, avoid answering questions or identifying themselves, and report ICE activity in their neighborhoods.
Based in San Francisco, CAA bills itself as a “progressive voice” for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), advocating for “systemic change that protects immigrant rights, promotes language diversity, and remedies racial and social injustice.” In 2020, CAA, along with the AAPI Equity Alliance and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Department, formed the Stop AAPI Hate coalition in response to what they called a rise in anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden DOJ awarded CAA a $2 million grant to support Stop AAPI Hate in conducting research, performing policy advocacy and implementing “strategic communications and digital media to sustain public education and conversation on anti-AAPI hate and scapegoating.”CAA received $500,000 of the $2 million grant before the Trump administration terminated the rest of the funding in April, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to other groups, arguing that the activities it supported were “inconsistent with the interests of the United States.
Since President Donald Trump assumed office in January, both organizations have circulated resources instructing illegal immigrants on how to respond to encounters with ICE.
The CAA website advises individuals to keep their doors closed, refuse to answer questions or present identification, call the San Francisco Rapid Response Hotline to “report ICE and protect your community,” among other recommendations. Stop AAPI Hate provides much of the same guidance and warns against carrying documents from another country, such as passports, stating that “ICE can use these against you.”
Stop AAPI Hate described the Trump administration’s deportation efforts as a “hate-fueled campaign designed to terrorize millions of people; permanently marginalize communities of color; and diminish the dignity, human rights, and safety of immigrants.” Likewise, Stop AAPI hate has called the Trump administration’s deportation efforts “abduction” and compared the administration’s immigration policies to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Moreover, Stop AAPI Hate blamed the June anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles — which caused more than $32 million in damages to the city — on the Trump administration, criticizing it for “using tactics suited more to a battlefield than American neighborhoods” and for “provoking unrest.”
“Everyone – no matter who you are or what your immigration status is – has a constitutional right to protest,” the organization posted on X.
A federal judge on July 7 dismissed a class action lawsuit filed by CAA and four other groups challenging the Trump administration’s decision to pull its grant funding.
Neither CAA nor Stop AAPI Hate responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
In March, Stop AAPI Hate hosted a virtual town hall titled “Anti-Immigrant Attacks and Ways We’re Fighting Back,” in which one of the featured speakers, Chanthon Bun, openly admitted to being in the country illegally and having a criminal record.
Bun served 23 years of a 50-year sentence in California for a 1998 conviction for burglary, robbery, battery and use of a firearm, legal records show. While incarcerated, Bun was found guilty in a prison disciplinary proceeding of attempted murder of a peace officer, though he later pleaded guilty in court to a lesser charge of battery and received four additional years.
“The fear-mongering is so real,” said Kenny Nguyen, an advocacy manager for Stop AAPI Hate and moderator of the event. “The narrative of, like, who deserves to be here, what is a good immigrant, who are the bad immigrants, and do they deserve to be here, is so pervasive.”
Ironically, a January survey by Stop AAPI Hate found that more adults who identify as AAPI support increasing the authority of ICE to detain or deport illegal immigrants than oppose it.
Millions of Americans, including many AAPIs, joined the nationwide protests against Trump’s agenda and stood in solidarity with immigrants & citizens of all backgrounds. People uniting together to protect our communities is what we need to stand up against authoritarian attacks. pic.twitter.com/2lp9n6A08n
— Stop AAPI Hate (@StopAAPIHate) June 16, 2025
Stop AAPI Hate has consistently downplayed the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and opposed legislation targeting CCP espionage and political influence in the U.S. In a 2022 report titled “The Blame Game: How Political Rhetoric Inflames Anti-Asian Scapegoating,” the group characterized “rhetoric that accuses China and the Chinese Communist Party of spying” as “fearmongering” and claimed it fuels anti-asian “hate incidents.”
Meanwhile, another taxpayer-funded nonprofit — the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), based in New York City — is under investigation by the House Homeland Security Committee after an undercover video appeared to show its staff instructing audience members on how to avoid ICE arrests. In addition to receiving at least $1.4 million in federal funding, CPC has received as much as $445,969 in donations from sources with ties to the Chinese government since 2018, the DCNF reported in May.
There were approximately 390,000 illegal immigrants from China in the country as of 2019, according to the Migration Policy Institute. However, border encounters involving nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) surged in 2023 and 2024 under the Biden administration, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
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