Overview
- House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith sent a January 13 referral asking the IRS to investigate CAIR-California and consider revoking its 501(c)(3) status.
- Smith’s letter cites reports that more than $7 million in federal refugee legal-aid funding was mishandled, with fewer than 10% of intended beneficiaries served and millions routed through an unregistered Los Angeles affiliate using CAIR-CA’s EIN, raising potential False Claims Act and disclosure issues.
- The referral alleges CAIR-CA institutionally endorsed and materially supported campus encampments that led to arrests, citing incidents at UCLA and UC San Diego as examples of conduct incompatible with nonprofit rules.
- CAIR-California rejects the claims as inaccurate and based on faulty or corrected reporting, says its grants are properly used and audited, and confirms it sent its own response to the IRS; the agency has not announced any enforcement action.
- The push for scrutiny is unfolding as Republicans elevate broader nonprofit oversight, with references to a large Minnesota COVID-era fraud case and to Texas’s 2025 designation of CAIR as a terrorist organization that CAIR is contesting in court.