Steve Hilton Alleging CHIRLA Using Illegal Immigrants to Campaign for Xavier Becerra for Governor

Republican Candidate for California Governor Steve Hilton unleashed a bombshell Wednesday against Democrat candidate Xavier Becerra: Hilton alleges that California taxpayer funding is being used by the Becerra campaign to pay for illegal immigrants to campaign for Xavier Becerra, in a weird sort of “quid pro quo.”

CAL DOGE claims internal documents show this outreach by CHIRLA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, is tied to the Becerra endorsement and uses public funding indirectly for partisan campaign work, including payments to illegal immigrants who don’t have legal work authorization.

This would be a serious violation of federal law on unauthorized employment and misuse of funds. Hilton called it “illegal theft of public money” at a press conference outside of a CHIRLA office Wednesday.

“A voter-contact operation built around immigrant communities has every incentive to back the candidate most likely to protect and expand the policy environment that feeds it,” CAL DOGE says.

Hilton says “taxpayer-funded non-profit CHIRLA endorsed Becerra April 13th. Our investigation reveals payments to illegal immigrants for campaign activity.”

🚨 NEW FROM CAL DOGE: California taxpayer $$$ funding illegal immigrants to campaign for Xavier Becerra, in violation of federal law.

Taxpayer-funded non-profit CHIRLA endorsed Becerra April 13th. Our investigation reveals payments to illegal immigrants for campaign activity: pic.twitter.com/ziM3P4pT6C

— Steve Hilton (@SteveHiltonx) May 6, 2026

The allegation from Hilton and CAL DOGE is that CHIRLA’s operations create a pipeline where taxpayer-funded services – all sorts of immigration aid through naturalization – feed into political mobilization.

This isn’t the first time CHIRLA has been in the headlines. Last year the U.S. House Judiciary Committee announced that they were investigating whether CHIRLA, which they called an “activist organization with ties to the Democratic Party that received nearly $1 million in grants under the Biden administration used the funds to foment the anti-ICE riots that ripped through Los Angeles earlier this month.”

“In a letter obtained by The New York Post addressed to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), the committee details the taxpayer-funded grants doled out to the group by the federal government between 2021 and 2023.”

“This raises concerns that CHIRLA may be using federal funds to support violent criminal activity that impedes the enforcement of federal immigration law,” the letter states in reference to the funds, which ostensibly were paid out to support things like “citizenship instruction and naturalization services” and “innovations in citizenship education.”

CAL DOGE reported Wednesday:

The scandal is not a hidden campaign check. It is a public-funded service network that builds political power, then backs the candidate who could govern the money.*

The first rule of a political machine is that the most important subsidy is not always the check. It is the infrastructure.

That is what makes Xavier Becerra’s relationship with CHIRLA Action Fund matter. The clean fact is right on Becerra’s own campaign website: CHIRLA Action Fund is listed as an organizational endorser of his 2026 campaign for California governor.

CALO News reported that the endorsement followed interviews with more than 200 CHIRLA Action Fund leaders across California, many of them new voters or new citizens. The same report said Angelica Salas, president of the Fund, announced that the organization would work to elect Becerra in the primary and then in November.

Then the organization came back for him. When Tom Steyer attacked Becerra over his record as HHS secretary, CALO News reported that CHIRLA Action Fund held a press conference to refute the accusations, called Becerra a champion, and demanded the ad come down.

That is not passive support. That is political protection.

The mistake is to look only for a campaign check. A check is disclosed, capped, debated and forgotten. Infrastructure compounds. It builds trust. It trains organizers. It creates repeat contact. It turns casework into community loyalty, community loyalty into civic participation, and civic participation into candidate power.

Becerra is the test because the whole pipeline is visible at once.

CHIRLA Action Fund, the political 501(c)(4) arm of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, formally endorsed Xavier Becerra for California governor on April 13, 2026, announced on Instagram, and in statements, committing to work to elect him in the June 2 primary and the November General Election.

Xavier Becerra accepted their endorsement.

“According to financial records obtained by DataRepublican, CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in government grants, mostly from the state of California, in the fiscal year ending June 2023, a jump from the $12 million it received the previous year,” the House Judiciary Committee reported.

The radical group also received around $450,000 in grants for “citizenship education and training” between October 2021 and September 2024 from the Department of Homeland Security, the very agency CHIRLA was protesting.

CHIRLA has received more than $100 million reported over longer periods, and they have received federal grants, including $1 million from DHS/Biden-Harris administration for citizenship education.