The Republican-controlled U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security is investigating the Chinese-American Planning Council, a New York City nonprofit, alleging in a letter that the taxpayer-funded group’s know-your-rights training sessions may help undocumented people evade immigrant enforcement officers.

In a letter published on the committee’s website, Committee Chair Rep. Mark E. Green of Tennessee and Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma alerted CPC President and CEO Wayne Ho about the probe into the “potential use of federal funds by non-government organizations (NGOs) to facilitate illegal immigration.”

The two Republicans requested that Ho turn over a bevy of documents, including federal grant applications and notes relating to an “undercover video” of a March 8 training purportedly recorded by Muckraker.com, a conservative watchdog group. The footage, as characterized in the House committee letter, shows a CPC official “explaining strategies for avoiding and potentially impeding immigration officials during a seminar in New York.”

Spokespeople for Greene and Brecheen did not respond to requests for comment. CPC — which has received more than $900,000 in federal grants since 2022, according to the letter — denies wrongdoing and plans to respond to the letter by the committee’s deadline, 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Ho said in an email.

Alice Du, CPC’s director of communications, said in a statement that the group’s trainings “help community members better understand their rights on a range of services, including education, health care, employment, housing, immigration and more.”

She added: “CPC fully adheres to all laws. Our trainings do not direct anyone to do anything or to evade the law, but rather to inform participants of their constitutional rights which they may choose to exercise.”

CPC bills itself as the nation’s largest Asian American social service organization, providing day care, after-school programs, home-delivered meals, affordable housing, senior centers and English classes, among other services, to New York City’s Chinese American community.

The investigation comes as the Trump administration has increased pressure on judges, institutions and others it alleges have impeded or otherwise helped immigrants elude immigration enforcement agents.

On Friday, FBI agents arrested a Milwaukee judge accused of obstructing justice by directing an undocumented immigrant to leave her courtroom through a side door while Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waited elsewhere in a hallway to arrest him.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Homeland Security to identify cities and states that “obstruct” federal immigration enforcement. Those jurisdictions may lose funding, the White House said.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat from New York who helped CPC secure federal grants, slammed the House inquiry, saying in a statement, “This so-called investigation is just the latest Republican attempt to intimidate immigrant communities and the groups that support them. Targeting nonprofits for teaching people their rights is shameful and an abuse of federal power.”

Since Trump’s election win in November, local immigrant advocacy groups have been hosting more know-your-rights sessions for immigrants without permanent legal immigration status.

CPC came under fire from Republicans after an undercover video of the March 8 know-your-rights session was published online by The Oversight Project, a conservative watchdog group established by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that created Project 2025, a policy blueprint for Trump’s second presidential term.

In the video, Carlyn Cowen, CPC’s chief policy and public affairs officer, is heard recommending to the audience that businesses and other organizations “harden your physical space” in preparation for potential encounters with immigration officials — an example mentioned in Greene’s and Brecheen’s letter to CPC.

In another segment, Janice Northia, a know-your-rights trainer for the New York Immigration Coalition, instructed participants that they can remain silent when questioned by ICE and refuse searches — a common recommendation in such know-your-rights trainings. Northia also recommended that audience members “do not open the door” when approached by ICE.

All interactions with ICE can happen while the door is closed, Northia said.

In the House committee’s letter, Greene and Brecheen criticized Northia for instructing audience members “how to identify and minimize contact with immigration officials.”

The New York Immigration Coalition declined to comment.

Joo Han, the interim co-executive director of the Asian American Federation, another New York City-based nonprofit, said know-your-rights sessions are vital in the current political climate, especially when 50% of Asian New Yorkers don’t speak English proficiently.

“To have to be in an environment where so much information is changing in terms of people’s access to services and benefits, and their rights … it’s really important that we provide community education, events, and trainings, to make sure that people understand what their constitutional rights are,” Han said.

The Oversight Project’s video singled out New York politicians who helped secure federal and state funding for the CPC, including Democrats Gov. Kathy Hochul, Rep. Dan Goldman and Velazquez.

In a statement, Goldman criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“This administration is sending undercover ICE officers wearing masks to arrest people, ‘mistakenly’ flying legal residents to supermax prisons in foreign countries and wrongly detaining American citizens,” Goldman said in the statement. “The congressman would happily offer anyone in this administration a similar tutorial on due process rights and the rule of law so that they can stop breaking the law and recklessly terrorizing legal residents in this country.”

Avi Small, a spokesperson for Hochul, made similar remarks.

“Gov. Hochul has repeatedly said New York can help federal immigration officials arrest violent criminals, but will never support policies that rip families apart or target innocent children,” Small said in a statement. “Due process is the foundation of the American legal system, and Gov. Hochul believes every single person deserves to know the rights they are granted under the United States Constitution.”

Assemblymember Grace Lee, who co-sponsored the March 8 know-your-rights session, also criticized the House investigation.

“The Trump administration’s sham investigation into CPC is a fascist move to undermine an organization providing critical services to the Asian American community,” Lee said in a statement. “The Trump administration continues to drive policies that dismantle support systems our communities rely on and make the Asian American community suffer.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.