DHS pulls funding from groups with ‘alleged terrorist ties’ after watchdog report

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reviewing federal security grants for Muslim groups with “alleged terrorist ties” after a new report linked past funding to “extremist” organizations.

According to a DHS document obtained by Fox News Digital, 49 projects “with alleged affiliations to terrorist activities” have already been canceled, a move the department estimates will save $8 million.

The review primarily targets funding distributed through FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), which provides aid to churches, mosques, synagogues, and other faith-based institutions facing threats of hate-driven violence.

The probe follows a report by the Middle East Forum, a pro-Israel conservative think tank, which claimed that more than $25 million in DHS and FEMA grants went to “terror-linked groups” between 2013 and 2023.

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A DHS official said the department is conducting its own independent review of funding but added, “We take the results of the MEF report very seriously and are thankful for the work of conservative watchdog groups.”

The report flagged a $100,000 grant in 2019 to the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia, which Customs and Border Protection once described as a “mosque operating as a front for Hamas operatives in the U.S.,” according to records obtained by the Investigative Project through the Freedom of Information Act.

In response to the MEF’s findings, DHS is reviewing all current and future contracts to ensure funds are not awarded to such organizations. Officials said the department is also examining ways to recover unspent funds.

Funding for fiscal year 2024 has already been allocated. That includes $94 million for 500 Jewish organizations and another $110 million shared among 600 Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jewish institutions.

For fiscal year 2025, DHS said applicants will face tougher requirements to ensure a “robust” vetting process.

“We don’t want to be empowering groups that could be causing a threat to our community here in the United States,” a DHS official said.

The Middle East Forum’s report also highlighted specific cases of funding that it claims went to groups with extremist ties. It said $10.3 million had gone to the Islamic Circle of North America, which the forum alleges is tied to the South Asian Islamist movement Jamaat-e-Islami.

The report further cited $250,000 awarded to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which DHS has accused of having “Hamas ties.” Another $750,000, according to the report, went to mosques in Michigan and Texas that DHS described as “outposts for Iran’s revolutionary brand of Shi’a Islamism,” including the Islamic Center of America and the Islamic House of Wisdom near Detroit, as well as the Islamic Ahlul Bayt Association in Austin.

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CAIR told Fox News Digital it has no active federal contracts with DHS.

“While our civil rights organization has no active federal grants that the Department could eliminate or cut, and while the government cannot ban American organizations from receiving federal grants based on their religious affiliation or their criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” a CAIR spokesperson said, “it’s important to note that Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security is embarrassing President Trump by making decisions based on the ravings of the Middle East Forum, an Israel First hate website.”

FEMA has previously worked with CAIR, holding seminars to encourage participation in the NSGP program.

But last week, CAIR urged organizations to withdraw from applying for DHS and FEMA grants — including the NSGP — unless DHS drops two new vetting rules. Those provisions require recipients to cooperate with immigration officials and prohibit them from running programs tied to diversity, equity, inclusion, or aid to undocumented immigrants, as well as from engaging in certain “discriminatory prohibited boycotts.”