Senator Banks Urges Administration to Investigate Foreign Influence Behind Anti-ICE Activism

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.)sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging a formal investigation into potential foreign influence and coordination behind a growing wave of anti-ICE activism across the United States.

Read more about the letter here.

Read the full letter here or see full text below.

Dear Attorney General Bondi:

I urge you to investigate foreign influence behind anti-ICE activism. Progressive groups across the country are organizing protests, economic boycotts, and school walkouts to oppose immigration enforcement. In many cases, they are inciting the obstruction of federal law. Some groups have been financed and organized by foreign agents, including agents of the Chinese Communist Party who were also involved with violent protests in 2020 and after October 7, 2023. It is imperative to understand how our adversaries may be sowing civil unrest on U.S. soil.

A national and coordinated anti-ICE network has activated in response to immigration

enforcement by ICE and Border Patrol. The network, which has been described as an

"insurgent-style operation," has advanced insurgent-style methods. In trainings, some anti-ICE groups encourage protestors to interfere with enforcement, to "strike" law enforcement officers, and to forcefully remove arrestees from custody-tactics that, as organizers acknowledge, move beyond lawful protest. Obstructing federal law enforcement is a crime, as is harboring aliens known to be in the country illegally.

These tactics are not confined to training exercises and Instagram graphics. Activists have assaulted law enforcement officers, blocked their vehicles, and entered confrontations-with terrible and tragic results. Others have stormed churches and waged pressure campaigns on private establishments.

We must identify who is behind this chaos before it tears the country apart. Local authorities' refusal to cooperate with law enforcement feeds and intensifies it. So does financing from high-profile progressive donors and sympathy from mainstream media outlets.

But our foreign adversaries are not disinterested parties. Just last week, the State Department identified a network of progressive groups run by Neville Singham as a source of Chinese influence. Singham, who lives in Singapore, shares office space with a Chinese propaganda outlet. Many Singham beneficiaries promote the Chinese Communist Party and defend the Chinese government against allegations of genocide. Far from staying silent about immigration debates, Singham Network groups have led anti-ICE boycotts and school walkouts across the country, and have encouraged immigrant groups to protest ICE.

This is not the first time the Singham Network has been linked to domestic strife. Mr. Singham organized the "Shut It Down for Palestine" campaign supporting Hamas after October 7, 2023. And the Party for Socialism and Liberation, another Singham group, was one of several CCP-linked groups engaged in riots during the summer of 2020.

Nor is Mr. Singham the only foreign source involved in current events. ICE resistance trainings with the stated purpose of "interfering" with federal law enforcement have been sponsored in multiple cities by groups funded by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss.

Wyss previously bankrolled pro-abortion ballot measures around the country and successfully got abortion enshrined as a constitutional right in multiple states.

Foreign principals should not dictate America's immigration policy, and they should not

encourage American citizens or guests of this country to obstruct law enforcement. At a

minimum, we should know who is funding anti-ICE activism, what influence those funders are wielding, and whether they are acting as agents of our adversaries.

I urge you to investigate the groups involved in anti-ICE activities, and respectfully request an answer to the following questions by April 5, 2026:

1. Of promoting and participating in anti-ICE activities, how many are in any way funded or organized by foreign sources? Of these foreign sources, how many come from countries of concern or countries that promote radical Islam?
2. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires agents of foreign principals to disclose their status and activities as foreign agents. Have any groups funded by Neville Singham ever registered with the Department of Justice as foreign agents acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party or Mr. Singham?
3. Singham Network groups are financed and very likely directed by an agent of the Chinese Communist Party. Considering this relationship, is it the view of the Department of Justice that Singham Network member groups are legally obligated to disclose their status as a foreign agent under FARA?
4. Other agencies have revoked benefits from non-profits that materially support illegal immigration, violate state tort law, and engage in violence for the purpose of obstructing the federal government, on the grounds that such activities have a "substantial illegal purpose." What plans does the Department of Justice have to hold non-profits that may oppose ICE to their obligation to follow U.S. law?

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and for all you are doing to make America great again.

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