Experts: Soros-Backed Charity That Potentially Violated Federal Law Is Still Lobbying

EXCLUSIVE — A pro-immigration charity backed by George Soros that may have illegally failed to disclose its previous lobbying activities still appears to be engaged in lobbying on Capitol Hill, experts told the Washington Examiner.

Alianza Americas claimed on its 2019 and 2020 tax forms that it didn’t lobby, prompting the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog, to file an IRS complaint in October, alleging the 501(c)(3) nonprofit group contrarily discloses “extensive lobbying activities” in these same documents. Still, it appears Alianza has lobbied on the heels of it potentially breaking federal law, according to charity experts.

“Public charities are not supposed to be engaging in substantial lobbying activities, and they risk their tax-exempt status when they don’t follow the rules,” Laurie Styron, executive director of CharityWatch, told the Washington Examiner.

“When charities do engage in small amounts of lobbying activities, they are required to report these to the public in their annual tax filings so that donors know what types of activities they are funding and so that taxpayers know what types of activities they are subsidizing,” Styron said.

Alianza, which received roughly $1.4 million from Soros’s Open Society Foundations network between 2016 and 2020, said on its 2019 and 2020 tax forms that it engaged in advocacy related to Temporary Protected Status. TPS is a policy that lets immigrants remain in the United States if their native country is dealing with extraordinary conditions such as armed conflict.

Between June 2017 and September 2019, Alianza visited Congress 200 times, the charity said on its 2019 and 2020 tax records. Alianza also said it brought TPS holders “to policymakers in Congress” and held “two congressional briefings” in Washington, D.C., on TPS and other immigration-related issues.

It is unclear whether Alianza claimed on its 2021 tax forms that it engaged in lobbying and whether it will claim on its 2022 tax forms that it did. A group is lobbying if it “contacts, or urges the public to contact, members or employees of a legislative body for the purpose of proposing, supporting, or opposing legislation” or advocates the “adoption or rejection of legislation,” according to the IRS.

But certain tweets recently indicate Alianza has continued to lobby directly and indirectly, meaning the nonprofit group should check off that it has done so on its tax forms for those years, according to Styron and Paul Kamenar, counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center.

SOROS-BACKED CHARITY SUING DESANTIS RECEIVED $70K FROM MAJOR LIBERAL DARK MONEY GROUP

In January 2021, Alianza said it met with Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) “to expand” TPS for countries that were affected by both Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota in 2020. The meeting was also reported on by Al Dia in January 2021 — which noted that Alianza was joined by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and Oxfam, an international group focused on alleviating poverty.

“I would expect to see a Schedule C with the tax filing for any years in which such lobbying occurred,” Styron said.

In October 2021, Alianza called on Congress to “pass legislation that grants permanent protections to immigrants,” including those who have TPS status. The charity posted a video of a TPS “beneficiary” urging the White House and Congress to grant those protections, and in November 2021, Alianza’s executive director, Oscar Chacon, led a TPS protest in front of the White House.

In September 2022, Alianza posted on Twitter detailing how it met with members of Congress as part of its “#FreedomForAll” campaign to “end immigration detention and re-invest the billions spent on lock-ups to fund a universal legal representation program for people who migrate and those in any immigration proceedings.”

On Sept. 12, also known as National Day of Advocacy to Defund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Alianza and another group met with Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) “to remind her that we must #DefundHate.” As part of that campaign, Alianza also met with Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) office.

“Today we met with representatives from @SenatorDurbin’s office to share about the urgency of defunding #ICE and #CBP,” tweeted the charity. “Deportation and detention, and surveillance technology is harmful in the form of alternatives to detention. #DefundHate #FreedomForAll @SenatorDurbin.”

“It appears that Alianza Americas continues to engage in both direct and indirect lobbying of Congress to change immigration laws as they have done in the past,” Kamenar said.

“They violated IRS laws in recent years by failing to report in their annual Form 990s that they do, and if they continue to fail to report that lobbying activity for this year, NLPC will file yet another formal complaint against the group,” he added.

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Alianza has raked in $8.5 million in grants from the Department of Health and Human Services. Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), as well as former President Donald Trump’s HHS chief of staff Brian Harrison, demanded the agency’s inspector general “audit” this money to ensure none was used for lobbying, the Washington Examiner reported.

It is illegal for federal grants to be used “directly or indirectly” for lobbying.

“It appears they may be committing multiple violations, especially if they used any of the millions of tax dollars Biden’s HHS gave them for lobbying,” Harrison told the Washington Examiner. “The American people deserve to know if the Biden administration knowingly gave their hard-earned money to an organization to illegally promote disastrous open border policies.”

Alianza did not respond to requests for comment.