Left-wing legal groups that help illegal immigrants evade deportation are funding the New York City mayoral run of Zohran Mamdani, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to a Washington Examiner review of campaign finance records.
Mamdani’s mayoral campaign is in part bankrolled by activist attorneys who work for legal aid agencies that provide pro bono services to illegal immigrants facing deportation, with individual donations totaling over $14,600.
Half of the funds ($7,400) came from Legal Aid Society staffers, including supervising attorneys, public defenders, and the deputy director of grants. The Legal Aid Society, which describes itself as the “largest, most influential social justice law firm in New York City,” defends low-income immigrants against the threat of deportation.
To date, its Immigration Law Unit has assisted over 12,000 immigrants living in New York. The unit’s federal litigation team is at the forefront of immigration fights in federal court, sometimes taking matters to the Supreme Court. The team regularly files habeas corpus cases challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. In collaboration with the firm’s Civil Law Reform Unit and pro bono partners, the team also brings class action lawsuits to enjoin federal immigration policies, such as the denial of relief.
The Legal Aid Society lists self-help resources on its website for illegal immigrants, such as instructions on navigating ICE encounters. “We do not recommend carrying documents that identify your nationality or country of origin,” the Legal Aid Society advises.
Disclosure data shows that more than a dozen lawyers and paralegals with the New York Legal Assistance Group made cash contributions to Mamdani’s campaign ahead of the primary election. NYLAG, a social justice advocacy organization offering free legal assistance, has represented roughly 15,000 immigrants in removal proceedings, including illegal aliens in detention.
Two dozen staffers, ranging from investigators to attorneys, with Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defense office fighting deportation efforts, gave Mamdani’s campaign nearly $2,000 in small-dollar donations. The office’s immigration division has “a highly successful in-house federal court practice,” where it litigated dozens of cases in U.S. courts, including habeas, mandamus, and class action claims.
Eleven associates of Legal Services NYC, a Manhattan-based immigrant legal services provider with offices in all five boroughs, donated to Mamdani’s campaign. Legal Services NYC, which receives a bulk of its funding from government contracts, “never charge[s] its clients for legal representation.”
Mamdani donors also include a communications associate and a non-profit consultant for the Soros-funded New York Immigration Coalition, a 501(c)(3) with ties to alleged anti-Semite and pro-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour. The coalition, consisting of 200 member organizations, is actively organizing protests in Albany, New York, amid immigration enforcement operations across the state.
HOW THE LEFT FUNDS THE LEGAL INDUSTRY SHIELDING MIGRANTS FROM DEPORTATION
Brooklyn Defender Services, NYIC, and the Legal Aid Society are all part of a coordinated campaign to get “ICE out of NYC.” The cohort seeks to restrict city authorities from coordinating with federal immigration enforcement and limit the New York Police Department’s ability to hold illegal aliens on ICE-issued detainers.
Donors affiliated with equity-oriented Asian American advocacy organizations have also poured money into Mamdani’s campaign coffers, including an associate of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), which provides immigration legal services for free at a number of New York City community centers, and the co-executive director of the left-of-center Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, which received an unrestricted “generous gift” from the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos in 2023.
CPC, which has financial connections to the Chinese Communist Party, is facing federal scrutiny as part of a congressional probe “into the potential use of federal funds by NGOs to facilitate illegal immigration.”
An undercover video showed CPC chief policy and public affairs officer Carlyn Cowen appearing to train a group of illegal aliens on how to avoid ICE capture. According to the clip, Cowen instructed attendees of a March 8 training seminar in New York City to “harden your physical space,” “identify a list of individuals authorized to respond if ICE comes to the door,” and “train everybody who’s going to be involved.” Cowen also advised restaurant workers to use an electronic alert system that informs other employees of the presence of “La Migra,” or immigration agents.
According to federal spending records, in addition to funding from CCP-linked entities, CPC has received over $1.45 million in taxpayer dollars since 2022.
