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Author: shailender

Blue city funds immigrant activist program with taxpayer dollars, critics say it ‘shuts citizens out’

Blue city funds immigrant activist program with taxpayer dollars, critics say it ‘shuts citizens out’

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration is offering taxpayer-funded scholarships for an activist program while limiting participation to immigrants, including non-U.S. citizens, a requirement that has drawn criticism online. The Immigrants Lead Boston program, run by the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement, is designed for “emerging leaders” interested in advocating for Boston’s immigrant communities. Participants meet city officials and receive training aimed at helping them engage with local government and organize within their communities during the 10-week program. Critics have seized on both the taxpayer funding and the eligibility requirements, arguing that U.S.-born residents are excluded from a city-backed leadership program whose participants can receive a $575 scholarship. “That is not charity. That is a political pipeline built to shut citizens out of their own city,” one user wrote on X. BOSTON TO GIVE LGBTQ+ MIGRANTS VOUCHERS FOR YOGA, MEDITATION, ‘CREATIVE HEALING’ “Paying illegal immigrants to learn political organizing to protest against the country they’re in,” one person wrote on X. “For starters it sounds like discrimination,” posted a user. “Michelle WU is a communist who probably wants a American version of China,” a person wrote taking shots at the Boston mayor. TRUMP’S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES NEW YORK, OTHER BLUE STATES OVER TUITION FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS “Is this legal,” asked one user. “Illegal aliens have broken our laws. Any assistance given them other than assistance to leave the country, simply rewards their unlawful behavior, encourages other unlawful behavior, and more illegals to follow their lead,” one person posted. Similar taxpayer-backed benefits for immigrants have surfaced in other Democratic-led states, particularly in higher education. NEBRASKA ENDS IN-STATE TUITION BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS UNDER DOJ DEAL SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER New York, Connecticut and Vermont have offered in-state tuition or other financial benefits to immigrants in the country illegally, while Oregon and Washington have provided access to benefits such as state grants or student loans. California has also allowed qualifying students in the country illegally to apply for state financial aid. Fox News Digital reached out to Mayor Wu’s office for comment.

Republicans zero in on key player accused of helping Democrat fundraising giant hide foreign cash

Republicans zero in on key player accused of helping Democrat fundraising giant hide foreign cash

FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans’ investigation into Democrats’ main fundraising platform is heating up on the heels of an explosive report that raised questions about whether left-wing candidates’ campaigns were raking in foreign cash. Top House GOP committee chairs are summoning ActBlue attorney Ronald Machen for a closed-door interview sometime before Oct. 9, Fox News Digital has learned. A letter sent to Machen Monday morning stated that information he previously disclosed to investigators appears to contradict other data that has been collected, specifically on ActBlue’s verification standards for making sure a donor is a U.S. citizen. “On September 11, 2026, you provided a briefing to the House Administration, Judiciary, and Oversight and Government Reform Committees regarding the accuracy of ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones’s prior statements to Congress about ActBlue’s donor and passport collection processes,” the letter said. “Your review appears to be nothing more than an after-the-fact sugarcoating of ActBlue’s misconduct and Ms. Wallace-Jones’s misrepresentations to the House Administration Committee.” ANOTHER ACTBLUE LEADER PLEADS FIFTH AS HOUSE INVESTIGATES ALLEGED FOREIGN DONATIONS The letter was sent by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Wis., Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who lead the panels probing ActBlue. ACTBLUE CO-FOUNDER PLEADS FIFTH AMENDMENT IN CLOSED-DOOR HOUSE GOP GRILLING ActBlue is a massive platform for campaigns to raise money that’s used by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, among others. Republican lawmakers have long accused the company of having lax verification standards for donors, something ActBlue has said it actively improved since the start of the GOP’s probe. But a new report released earlier this month, first reported by Fox News Digital, appears to show employees green-lighting donations despite some questions about where they came from. FAR-LEFT POLITICIANS STILL USING ACTBLUE AS 88-YEAR-OLD DISPUTES DONATING NEARLY $150,000 TO FUNDRAISING GIANT Chief among the GOP’s concerns is ActBlue’s passport number verification. According to the report, the field only requires the correct number of characters for a U.S. passport number rather than a valid code for a donation to be accepted. The Monday letter also points to a 2024 “contemporaneous review by ActBlue’s then-outside counsel, former Biden White House Counsel Dana Remus” which allegedly found “‘a substantial risk that some of the funds’ raised for Democrat campaigns and causes by ActBlue ‘were impermissible contributions from foreign nationals.’” Remus’ review further found that “passport checks did not always happen” and were “never conducted” when donations were made using third-party fiscal platforms like Apple Pay or PayPal, the letter said. The Republican chairs said Machen’s prior comments to Congress “conceded that your ‘forensic’ review found that ActBlue processed and accepted donations with foreign indicators even though ActBlue failed to identify a ‘passport number’ or ‘other indicia of eligibility’ for the donor. HOUSE DEM LASHES OUT AT GOP EFFORTS TO PROBE FOREIGN DONATIONS WITH STUNNING CLAIM ON MOTIVE “Nonetheless, you defended Ms. Wallace-Jones’s representations to Congress by arguing that ActBlue’s compliance and vetting policy was ‘as close to 100 percent as it could be,’” the letter said. “Documents produced to the Committees undercut your assertion. These documents demonstrate that if a donor did not have a U.S. passport or a U.S. address, an ActBlue employee retained the ability to determine an ‘alternative method of verifying the [donor’s] citizenship.’ This means an ActBlue employee could put ‘a placeholder,’ including ‘ACTBLUEXX,’ ‘in the passport number field of [the donor’s] ActBlue account.’ The placeholder allows ActBlue to accept all subsequent contributions from the donor without requiring a U.S. passport number.” ACTBLUE SCRUTINY FUELS NEW GOP BILLS TO TIGHTEN ELECTION DONATION RULES The letter said Machen’s review was also limited to 2023, arguing it left out potentially valuable information about 2024. “As such, the review did not accurately represent the totality of ActBlue’s foreign donation vetting and donor outreach practices during the 2024 election cycle. In fact, documents produced to the Committees show that ActBlue relaxed its vetting practices twice in 2024—data that your narrow ‘forensic’ review did not capture,” the letter said. ACTBLUE SUES TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON, ALLEGING POLITICAL RETALIATION OVER DEMOCRATS’ FUNDRAISING It also charged that he disputed Remus’ analysis without going into detail on how he established his own findings. ActBlue has consistently denied any wrongdoing and dismissed Republicans’ most recent findings in a statement to Fox News Digital. “There’s nothing to see here. After we released findings of a third-party forensic analysis that completely undermined a central claim that they have made against ActBlue, Republicans are refusing to move on,” ActBlue said. “Instead, they are orchestrating another political stunt before rushing out of town weeks early to go campaign. This coordinated campaign against ActBlue isn’t about the facts, or legislating, it’s about Republicans’ efforts to silence organizations they believe threaten their agenda.” A closed-door interview summons is not the same as a subpoena, which is a legally binding order.