A county in Northern Virginia has declined to hand over almost $2 million in federal COVID-19 relief to a liberal immigration activist group that calls itself a “national powerhouse.”
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted Feb. 20 to deny the proposed reimbursement of about $1 million in federal funds to the organization, called CASA, after a county audit discovered over $200,000 worth of misallocated funds.
The pro-amnesty group was supposed to use the federal COVID-19 aid to build a “training lab” and cover “programming start-up costs” for a new welcome center to be built in Prince William County.
According to the audit obtained by local news site InsideNOVA, however, CASA used the funds to offset infrastructure costs at a separate location and to pay for an employee’s English language classes.
Prince William found that CASA also used “thousands of dollars” to create merchandise, including lip balm, hoodies, and “fidget fun blocks,” InsideNOVA reported.
The Daily Signal sought comment from the pro-amnesty organization and will update this article if it responds.
The immigration group CASA is not the same as the organization Court Appointed Special Advocates, also known as CASA, which operates on behalf of children in court systems across the nation.
CASA made waves in June 2020 when it disrupted another board of supervisors meeting in Prince William. Members of the group joined Black Lives Matter demonstrators in protesting the county’s cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency known as ICE, as well as calling on county officials to defund the police.
During that meeting, a CASA representative made harsh remarks about a Republican supervisor, Yesli Vega.
The CASA rep told Vega she “is the devil” and should “zip your mouth,” according to several news reports.
The CASA rep apparently condemned Vega for her support of a federal program in Prince William to identify illegal aliens who had committed crimes. Vega is also the first Hispanic member of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.
CASA considers itself a “national powerhouse” that is dedicated to “building power and improving the quality of life in working-class: Black, Latino/a/e, Afro-descent, Indigenous, and Immigrant Communities,” according to its website.
The website says the group aims “to create paths to citizenship” for illegal aliens.
In one such effort, CASA partnered with Baltimore’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to help over 1,000 immigrant families “access federal, state, and local aid.”
The organization often uses the phrase “Latinx,” a phrase for gender-nonconforming Hispanics who won’t use Latino or Latina to describe themselves.
The group focuses on what it calls “LGBTQIA+” initiatives. It participates regularly in the District of Columbia’s Pride Parade, chanting “Si Se Puede” (meaning “Yes, We Can”), a common phrase for activists started by labor leader Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers of America.
CASA also recently hosted “Café Con CASA,” a presentation dedicated to “addressing the imperialist roots of the gender binary, anti-LGBT legislative trends, and more.”
The group also touts its political initiatives to achieve “climate justice.” On its website, CASA says the “climate emergency humanity faces today is fueled by capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism.”
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