(The Center Square) – A watchdog director questioned the government funding of a Florida nonprofit focused on helping “immigrant workers” over its lack of transparency in finances as well as the political advocacy it engages in with tax dollars.
Director of watchdog group the Center to Advance Security in America James Fitzpatrick told The Center Square: “Given the amount of government money that WeCount! receives from Miami-Dade County, it is troubling that they are not being transparent about their finances.”
WeCount! is a Florida-based nonprofit that ”advocates for better living and working conditions for immigrant workers and families” in the Sunshine State and has “organized and mobilized thousands of immigrant workers and families and led powerful campaigns for labor, immigrant, and climate justice,” according to its website.
Fitzpatrick told The Center Square that WeCount! is not only “being subsidized by the American taxpayer but they are also receiving large sums of local government funding.
“With that, they need to be accountable to both the American people and more specifically the taxpayers of Miami-Dade County,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick said that “all non-profits need to be compliant with IRS rules and regulations” whether that is “related to transparency of finances or engaging in potentially illegal conduct.
“Illegal conduct may include organizations such as WeCount! obstructing federal immigration enforcement activities, such as when they aided the ACLU in the creation and implementation of a hotline to provide advice to illegal immigrants to evade arrest,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick is referring to the ACLU Florida’s RAISE hotline launched in partnership with WeCount! and others last January “in response to the incoming administration’s mass detention and deportation plans,” an ACLU Florida press release said.
WeCount! did not respond to a request from The Center Square for comment by the time of publication.
Other political activity WeCount! has engaged in includes helping to lead a nursery worker strike this past May in the name of “planting justice,” as well as calling its city council in Homestead’s agreement to partner with ICE a “terrible policy.”
Fitzpatrick further noted that “as recent reporting has shown, any non-profit organization that engages in illegal conduct should understand that the Trump administration is laser focused on NGOs and charities that violate the public trust and will be scrutinizing any efforts to mask political activism through non-profit organizations.”
WeCount! has received 180 disbursements from Miami-Dade County since 2008, according to county records, reaching an aggregate value of over $1 million.
According according to the Center to Advance Security in America, based off IRS 990 filings, WeCount! has poorly accounted for its fundraising, as WeCount!’s “$6.9 million figure, which was reported to the IRS over a 16-year period, is called into question by the fact the group has repeatedly reported that 90% of its annual revenues have come from government grants, while it was receiving five- and six-figure grants from several private groups.”
The Center to Advance Security in America is a “nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the safety and security of the American people,” as stated on its website.
