By Daniel Jackson | djackson@repub.com
Old news. That’s how a Massachusetts immigration organization targeted by Trump administration cuts characterizes word Friday of $1 billion in lost funding.
In a statement Friday, the White House said President Donald Trump canceled the program that sent $300,000 to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, calling the money’s use harmful to American citizens and wasteful.
But the organization called the announcement a “PR move” lacking substance. In an email, the MIRA Coalition said its operations are unaffected by the administration’s statements, which it described as an effort to create a false narrative about federal funding and immigrants.
“This whole thing is just a PR move out of this administration,” Sarang Sekhavat, chief of staff at MIRA Coalition, said in an interview Monday. “These funds were cut a year and a half ago. This is not news. … On top of everything else, … they’re just completely and intentionally mischaracterizing what we did.”
The White House said the MIRA Coalition was one of a handful of “radical open borders NGOs” that were recipients of “laundered taxpayer dollars” that helped immigrants with legal issues and to “game the immigration system.”
MIRA, the White House said, issued a toolkit that urged people to call an immigration hotline if people saw ICE agents operating in their communities.
The MIRA Coalition used the $300,000 to run a citizenship program for green card holders, which helped a couple hundred people a year, Sekhavat said. The funds were frozen near the start of Trump’s second term.
As for the toolkit described by the White House, Sekhavat said the organization regularly issues guides to communities. The administration just happened to take issue with one.
“It was just a little guide we put out. It’s not even a full program,” he said.
After the administration cut the citizenship assistance funding in early 2025, the MIRA Coalition filed a lawsuit seeking to reinstate the program. In June, however, the group moved to voluntarily drop its claims against the federal government.
The Trump administration said the $810 million in funding was the second time the president used a procedure called a “pocket rescission.” The procedure is when a president asks Congress to rescind funds, but because the federal fiscal year ends at the end of the month, the body doesn’t have enough time to consider the request.
The move is illegal because it skirts Congress’ power of the purse, according to the Government Accountability Office.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, said the procedure has not been used by presidents since Richard Nixon.
“Congress determines these allocations and they were voted on by Republicans and Democrats,” Neal said. “These numbers were previously agreed to.”
Neal said he thought the president was flexing “some political leverage” a few weeks out from the midterm elections, but he will either change his mind or Congress will override him after voters head to the polls.
The White House did not return a request for comment on how the pocket rescission affects groups in Massachusetts.
