Overview
- Rep. Chip Roy led a House delegation that, in a Monday letter, asked HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to suspend funding to CAIR-California and begin debarment, which is a government ban on receiving future grants.
- Roy’s letter says CAIR-California received more than $15 million in HHS sub-grants since 2022 for Afghan resettlement and legal aid run through the California Department of Social Services and the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement, which funds services for refugees.
- The delegation alleges grant and compliance violations that include pass-through payments to affiliates, weak service delivery for the money received, inconsistent use of organizational names in grant paperwork, and failures to report federal grants on IRS filings.
- The push follows a DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review investigation that began after a March 2025 complaint by the Intelligent Advocacy Network about alleged misuse of funds and accreditation issues.
- CAIR rejects the claims, points to a letter it sent to a Senate subcommittee describing its Afghan refugee work, and says the complainant is a hostile front group, while Roy also backs bills to label CAIR a terrorist organization and to strip tax-exempt status from groups he links to terrorism.