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For Immediate Release
August, 03 2018, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Lydia Andrews, Deputy Director
lydia@jubileeusa.org / (o) (202) 783-3566 x109 / (m) (847) 772-2305
Over 20 State Attorneys General Call for Shell Company Transparency
WASHINGTON
24 State Attorneys General wrote to Congress supporting action to disclose the actual owner of a shell company to law enforcement. "Anonymous" shell companies can be used to hide the identity of the owner.
"Shell companies are used by corrupt government officials to steal money from their people and hide the identities of people involved in the modern day human slave trade," stated Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte who serves on United Nations financial expert groups.
The Attorneys General letter raises concerns of how shell companies are sometimes used. "The use of anonymous shell companies by those engaged in human trafficking, drug dealing, and other crimes, allows criminals to launder and spend money attained through criminal activity without accountability," wrote the Attorneys General.
"Shell companies provide vehicles for tax evasion and corruption that contribute to an annual trillion dollar loss to developing world," said LeCompte.
Read the Attorneys General Letter here.
Jubilee USA Network is an interfaith, non-profit alliance of religious, development and advocacy organizations. We are 75 U.S. institutions and more than 750 faith groups working across the United States and around the globe. We address the structural causes of poverty and inequality in our communities and countries around the world.
(202) 783-3566LATEST NEWS
'Should Send a Chill Down the Spine of Every American': Trump DOJ Charges New Jersey Democrat
"The most corrupt administration in our country's history is targeting and punishing public officials who seek to hold them accountable."
May 20, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump's Justice Department announced Monday that it is pursuing assault charges against a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey who took part in an oversight visit at a privately run migrant detention center in Newark earlier this month.
In a statement, Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba announced the charges against U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), claiming the lawmaker "assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement" at GEO Group's Delaney Hall. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awarded GEO Group a billion-dollar contract earlier this year to detain migrants there, even as the facility faced legal challenges and accusations of abuse.
McIver rejected the charges against her as "purely political," saying that "they mischaracterize and distort my actions" in an attempt to "criminalize and deter legislative oversight."
"We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short," said McIver. "Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor [Ras] Baraka."
Habba said Monday that her office has agreed to drop the trespassing charge against Baraka, who welcomed the decision while expressing solidarity with McIver.
"Congresswoman McIver is a daughter of Newark, past Newark Council president, a former student of mine, and a dear friend," said Baraka. "I want to be clear: I stand with LaMonica, and I fully expect her to be vindicated."
"It reveals the increasingly authoritarian nature of this administration and its relentless, illegal attempts to suppress any dissent or oversight."
The U.S. attorney's announcement sparked an outpouring of support for McIver and grave warnings about the implications of the Trump administration's attempt to prosecute her and other officials who try to stand in the way of its lawless mass deportation effort.
"This is a clear political attack on Rep. LaMonica McIver for having the courage to stand up to Trump's abuses of power," said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party. "Let's be clear who the real lawbreakers are. In just the last week, both Donald Trump and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi have been caught with a hand in the cookie jar. Bondi sold millions of shares of stock on the same day that Trump announced his disastrous tariffs. And Trump accepted a $400 million luxury plane from the Qatari royal family."
"The most corrupt administration in our country's history is targeting and punishing public officials who seek to hold them accountable," Mitchell added.
McIver's fellow congressional Democrats also rallied to her defense.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) called the charges a "purely political act" and said that "oversight is not a criminal offense unless you are living under a fascist regime."
The chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), said that "the baseless charges against Congresswoman McIver for simply doing her job should send a chill down the spine of every American."
A group of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee warned that "charging members of Congress for doing our jobs is a dangerous precedent to set."
"It reveals the increasingly authoritarian nature of this administration and its relentless, illegal attempts to suppress any dissent or oversight, including from judges, members of Congress, and the American people, which check lawless executive power," the lawmakers said. "Representative McIver has our full support, and we will do everything in our power to help fight this outrageous threat to our constitutional system."
The scene at Delaney Hall earlier this month was highly chaotic, with video footage showing jostling and heated verbal exchanges outside of the facility's gate as federal agents moved to arrest Baraka after three New Jersey lawmakers—McIver and Reps. Robert Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman—visited the inside of the detention center, which they have a right to do under federal law.
The Department of Homeland Security released a video claiming to show McIver "assaulting" an ICE agent, and one DHS official accused the Democratic lawmaker of "body-slamming" and "body-ramming" officers. McIver, who rejected the claims, said at the time that federal agents at the scene were "roughing up members of Congress."
Watson Coleman, who is 80 years old, said she was "manhandled" by ICE agents as they moved to arrest Baraka.
In a statement late Monday, Mike Zamore of the national ACLU and Amol Sinha of ACLU-NJ said that "the Trump administration's political charges against Congresswoman McIver [are] a method more suited for authoritarianism than American democracy."
"If the Trump administration can target elected officials who oppose its extreme agenda, it can happen to any one of us," they said. "We demand that they drop the charges against Rep. McIver, and we implore her fellow members of Congress to call for the same."
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'Nonprofit Killer' Pulled From GOP Tax Bill—For Now
"Because authoritarians love using censorship to silence opposition, it's likely gonna keep rearing its head," warned one rights group.
May 19, 2025
While welcoming the removal of legislation in House Republicans' budget reconciliation package that would empower U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it deems supportive of a terrorist organization, rights groups on Monday urged vigilance, warning that GOP lawmakers could slip the contentious provision back into a future draft of the legislation.
In an unusual late Sunday night session, the House Budget Committee voted 17-16, with four Republicans voting "present," to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—named in an act of GOP fealty to Trump's description of the proposal—which would extend the president's 2017 tax cuts that have disproportionately benefited ultrawealthy households and corporations while slashing vital social programs upon which tens of millions of people rely.
The latest version of the proposal no longer contains an amendment based on the language of the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, or H.R. 9495—which critics have dubbed the "nonprofit killer."
"The removal of the nonprofit killer bill from the House Republicans' advanced tax package is a promising sign, not a victory."
According to the advocacy group Free Press Action, the bill allows the treasury secretary "to accuse any nonprofit of supporting terrorism—and to terminate its tax-exempt status without due process."
Civil liberties defenders say the proposal's lack of clarity regarding the determination of whether and how a nonprofit supports terrorism would enable Trump to follow through on his threats to cancel the tax-exempt status for organizations with which he disagrees, including universities, advocacy groups, media outlets, charities, religious institutions, and others.
Organizations that support Palestinian rights or oppose Israel's annihilation of Gaza—which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case—have been particularly concerned about the bill, citing the Trump administration's moves to defund universities and other institution that oppose crackdowns on Gaza protests and the arrest and detention of foreign nationals, including green-card holders, for constitutionally protected protests.
The Nonprofit Killer Bill was pulled from the GOP tax package, but this is no victory. It could return at any moment. If we want to protect the right of nonprofits to speak truth to power, we must act now. 🛑 Tell Congress: Keep the Nonprofit Killer Bill OUT 👉 action.cair.com/a/nonprofit-killer-bill
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— CAIR (The Council on American-Islamic Relations) (@cairnational.bsky.social) May 19, 2025 at 12:58 PM
While welcoming the removal of the measure from the reconciliation package, groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) warned of the possibility that Republican lawmakers could re-insert the provision in the reconciliation package, which is scheduled for consideration by the House Rules Committee later this week.
"The removal of the nonprofit killer bill from the House Republicans' advanced tax package is a promising sign, not a victory,"CAIR government affairs director Robert S. McCaw said Monday."This provision could come back at any time, and if Americans want to preserve the right of nonprofits to speak truth to power, now is the time to flood Congress with messages demanding they keep this language out of the bill."
"We are defending nothing less than the future of nonprofit advocacy and our core constitutional freedoms," McCaw added.
While it is uncertain why the proposal was removed from the reconciliation bill, ACLU senior policy counsel Kia Hamadanchy toldThe Intercept that "it's possible they took it out to rewrite it in some way, because we know that this package is going to be amended."
"But for now, it's not in the text of the bill, and that's an improvement from where we were at last week," Hamadanchy added.
Addressing everyone who contacted their federal lawmakers or took other action in opposition to the bill, the digital rights group Fight for the Future said on the social media site Bluesky that "pressure from YOU is making a difference."
"We killed this bill in the fall, but because authoritarians love using censorship to silence opposition, it's likely gonna keep rearing its head," the group added, referring to the legislation's failure to receive a Senate vote before the previous congressional term ended.
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Nearly Half of US Kids—34 Million—Rely on Food, Health Programs Targeted by GOP
"Children and families across America are at risk of losing affordable health coverage and access to healthy meals to pay for a massive tax cut for billionaires and big corporations," said Congresswoman Kathy Castor.
May 19, 2025
On the heels of the U.S. House Budget Committee's Republicans striking a deal to advance their megabill following a failed vote last week, a trio of organizations on Monday released a report detailing how the legislation could negatively impact tens of millions of American children.
Published by the AFL-CIO, First Focus on Children, and UnidosUS, the report—Children Under Attack: How congressional assaults on health and food programs are endangering the youngest Americans—begins by pointing out that nearly 45% of the country's kids, or 34 million, rely on Medicaid for health insurance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for food, or both.
"Put simply, budget reconciliation threatens to do severe and irreparable harm to millions of American children by terminating their health coverage and taking away help paying for food," the report states. "These cuts will leave children poorer, hungrier, and sicker."
"These cuts will leave children poorer, hungrier, and sicker."
Specifically, the document details, "14 million people would lose their health insurance, and millions would lose SNAP or see their benefits drop precipitously, compared to current law. All who participate in Medicaid and SNAP would be at risk, including people with disabilities, seniors, and low-wage workers at jobs without affordable health insurance—but children would be disproportionately hurt: 44% of all American children benefit from Medicaid or SNAP, compared to 23% of adults under age 65."
The publication notes that "these budget reconciliation proposals threaten children of all races and ethnicities, but Latino families and others from historically marginalized communities are in particular danger. Two-thirds of the children who participate in Medicaid or SNAP come from communities of color, placing them at heightened risk from proposed cuts."
"A cautionary note about the numbers in this report is important: They significantly understate the number of children who benefit from Medicaid and SNAP," the report adds. "Our estimates are based on the best available national survey data, but survey respondents significantly under-report their participation in Medicaid and SNAP. If administrative data from these benefit programs was available with enough detail to answer the questions posed in this report, our numbers would be both higher and more accurate."
The push for this megabill began in November, when the GOP won control of not only the White House but also both congressional chambers. Eric Rodriguez, senior vice president of UnidosUS, said in a Monday statement that "earlier this year, Republicans took control of the Congress and made three core promises: to bring costs under control for everyday people; to protect America's children; and to stand up for working-class families, including those in the Latino community who voted them into power."
"Today's report shows how their massive budget plan would break those promises," Rodriguez said. "It makes history's largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, taking away the healthcare and food assistance on which millions rely to help them work and make ends meet."
Trump—who is scheduled to meet with House Republicans on Capitol Hill Tuesday to promote the legislation—calls the package "one big, beautiful bill," a name that other GOP elected officials have adopted.
"There is nothing in this big bill that's beautiful for children," said First Focus on Children president Bruce Lesley, "but the gigantic cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are particularly ugly. Children already are struggling with rising infant and child mortality, increased poverty, and growing rates of hunger, homelessness, and a lack of health insurance."
The GOP's evolving budget reconciliation package would cut programs like Medicaid and SNAP—plus add up to trillions of dollars to the national debt over the next decade—to build on Trump and congressional Republicans' 2017 tax giveaways to wealthy individuals and corporations, a point that critics, particularly Demcratic lawmakers, have highlighted.
"Children and families across America are at risk of losing affordable health coverage and access to healthy meals to pay for a massive tax cut for billionaires and big corporations," said Congresswoman Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), co-chair of the Congressional Children's Health Care Caucus, in the groups' Monday statement.
"It's wrong and fiscally unwise—and will set children back at a time that they need support," Castor continued. "When children have a healthy start in life, they are more likely to succeed in school, the workplace, and in life. The Republican cuts to care and food for kids could result in developmental delays, serious health problems like cancer that could have been treated successfully, learning losses, and barriers to a high school diploma."
"First Focus on Children and UnidosUS help shine the light on the long-term damage to kids that would result from the GOP billionaire tax giveaway," she added. "Their new report serves as a call to action to reject the billionaire tax giveaway and instead focus on what makes children across America healthy and strong. The fight is far from over."
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