REPORT: Xavier Becerra’s HHS Funneled Nearly $80 Million to CAIR and Terror-Linked Islamist Groups

A significant portion of nearly $80 million in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grants to organizations with documented ties to terrorism and extremism flowed to California, according to reporting from Just the News drawing on a Middle East Forum (MEF) audit.

Just the News reported that HHS provided nearly $80 million to 14 organizations linked to terrorism and extremism. The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ California chapter (CAIR-CA) received the largest share among Islamist groups, collecting $42.2 million in HHS-originated funding to provide legal and social services to Afghan refugees. Much of the money was routed through the California Department of Social Services.

The MEF report found that 87 percent of the identified funding—approximately $68.5 million—occurred between 2022 and 2025, grants approved under the Biden-Harris administration. Xavier Becerra, the former California attorney general, served as HHS Secretary from March 2021 to January 2025 and oversaw the department during the period when the bulk of these awards were made.

Just the News detailed CAIR’s history of ties to terrorism, including its designation as an unindicted co-conspirator by federal prosecutors in a case involving financial support to Hamas, the FBI’s decision to end contacts with the group over those concerns, and the fact that multiple board or staff members have faced terrorism-related charges or denials of entry. CAIR has publicly condemned terrorism, including by Hamas, yet the documented money trail challenges their continued condemnation.

In a statement to Just the News, CAIR-CA said: “All contributions and grants that CAIR-CA receives are fully reported, accounted for, and used strictly for their intended purposes, subject to rigorous internal and external auditing and reporting. This transparency is why both private and public funders have worked with us and continue to do so. We are proud to serve and defend the rights of American Muslims and immigrants—communities that greatly enrich our nation and contribute to its economic success.”

Other groups receiving HHS funds included ICNA Relief ($10.6 million), which MEF links to an Islamist movement responsible for violence in South Asia, and the Muslim American Society’s Sacramento chapter ($90,000), described by a federal appeals court as an “overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.”

Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, told Just the News: “Washington took the most vulnerable people on earth, refugees who fled the Taliban, and delivered them into the hands of the organizations most likely to radicalize them. That is not compassion. That is a recruitment pipeline built at public expense, and every official who signed these awards owns it.”

HHS under current Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched a debarment investigation into CAIR over alleged grant abuses and terror links. In June, letters were sent to California Gov. Gavin Newsom citing concerns about funds sub-granted to CAIR-California. The Just the News report also covered separate State Department partnerships with World Vision involving billions in assistance, despite prior concerns about terror ties involving that organization’s affiliates.

The pattern of substantial federal and state pass-through funding via the California Department of Social Services is not limited to CAIR-CA.

As the California Globe previously reported, Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego saw its revenue more than sextuple from $11.5 million in 2019 to nearly $80 million by 2023, a surge fueled almost entirely by federal dollars for refugee and migrant services. Audit records show tens of millions in HHS-originated refugee and entrant assistance funds passed through CDSS to the organization for programs including migrant hotel wraparound services, Afghan Support and Investment, Refugee Cash Assistance, and related supports.

The Just the News report also covered separate State Department partnerships with World Vision involving billions in assistance, despite prior concerns about terror ties involving that organization’s affiliates.

Neither Gov. Gavin Newsom nor former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has issued a public response to the Just the News report or the June 2026 HHS letter regarding the CAIR funding.