REVEALED: The charities accused of 'aiding and abetting' migrant crisis after volunteer from Tucson Samaritans was filmed 'holding hole in fence open'

Footage of a charity volunteer allegedly holding open a section of Arizona's border wall for migrants to enter the country illegally has fueled scrutiny of non-profits accused by Republicans of 'aiding and abetting' the crisis and even engaging in 'human smuggling'.

Organizations which operate on both sides of the US-Mexico border are accused of  providing 'incentives' to migrants in the form of money, accommodation and transport.

Republicans have called for an investigation by Congress into the groups' activities after the video surfaced last week of a charity worker in Arizona allegedly holding open a section of border fence for people to enter the US from Mexico.

Some of the charities which are facing scrutiny have received tens of millions of dollars in taxpayers' money through federal grants.

The organizations, many with religious affiliations, have issued fierce denials of the claims and some have said the suggestion they encourage illegal immigration is 'preposterous'. They insist they are engaged in humanitarian work to help desperate asylum seekers who make dangerous journeys to the border.

Footage of a volunteer for the Tucson Samaritans allegedly helping migrants cross the border in Arizona led to claims by lawmakers that NGOs 'are actively facilitating illegal immigration'

TUCSON SAMARITANS

In Arizona, footage shared by Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin showed a volunteer from the Tucson Samaritans appear to hold open a section of border fence so a group of migrants could enter the country. The migrants then boarded a charity vehicle before they were transported away.

Tiffany suggested the volunteer's actions breached US laws which make it an offense to bring an alien into the US.

'NGOs are actively facilitating illegal immigration before our eyes,' he said. 'Now is the time to cut taxpayer funding to these groups that break our laws.'

He added: 'They are breaking the law, and many receive tax dollars to carry out the Biden Border Invasion. Congress must investigate these organizations.'

Tucson Samaritans is a mission of the city's Southside Presbyterian Church. It is not clear whether either receives taxpayer funding but both rely on donations for their work.

The group said that Tiffany's post was a 'misrepresentation of events'. A statement said: 'The situation with asylum seekers offers challenges to everyone to respond in a humane, legal manner. This is what we do.'

But some Republican lawmakers and campaigners claim that the incident highlights a larger problem of charitable groups of going beyond humanitarian work and into the realm of abetting illegal immigration.

Critics have also accused the United Nations of worsening the crisis by encouraging taxpayer-funded organization to support 'US-bound immigrants' from Latin America.

A recent report by the Center for Immigration Studies, a thinktank which advocates for tighter restrictions on immigration, said federal funding has been awarded to dozens of faith-based non-profit groups which 'distribute [funds] to keep hundreds of thousands of migrants comfortably moving toward illegal U.S. southern border crossings'.

Migrant children at a center run by Annunciation House, an El Paso charity which the Texas Attorney General has alleged is involved in 'human smuggling'

Migrant families are dropped off at an Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, in December 2022

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused Annunciation House, a prominent migrant charity in West Texas, of 'alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house'

The report identified groups which have received tens of millions of dollars from federal agencies including the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

GROUPS 'ENCOURAGE AND ENABLE' CROSSINGS

Report author Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the CIS, told DailyMail.com that many organizations believe that 'the activity of illegal border crossings is a human right and that it's a humane act to let them in'.

'They're doing nothing whatsoever to discourage it,' he said. 'They very likely encourage it and enable it.'

Bensman, who is also a DailyMail.com contributor, added: '[The organizations] almost box you in to interpreting their activity and funding as participating in illegal immigration and enabling it.'

His report for the CIS, published on January 30, said that the UN-led Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan has called for $1.6 billion in funding that would aid 'millions of U.S.-bound immigrants in 17 Latin American nations and Mexico'.

This work actively contributes to activities which break the immigration laws of UN member states, Bensman said.

Todd Bensman, Senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, said nonprofit groups 'encourage and enable' illegal immigration into the US

'In their documents, their attitude toward this activity is that it is moral and legal and humane,' he added of the groups.

Catholic Charities USA is among several organizations which have drawn the ire of Republican members of Congress since the outbreak of the current migrant crisis.

The charity has local offices in several cities and states which are at the frontline for crossings.

Catholic Charities San Antonio, one of its largest offices for migrant aid, receives tens of millions of dollars in federal funding each year. It has spent more than $30 million on bus and plane tickets to help migrants travel from Texas to other states including New York and Chicago.

Lance Gooden, a Representative from Texas, singled out Catholic Charities and ten other organizations in a letter to House colleagues in May 2023 which accused the groups of playing a 'disturbing role in the inflow and spread of illegal immigrants throughout the country'.

'These NGOs abuse their tax-exempt status and the trust of the very taxpayers that fund them by encouraging migrants to travel to the southern border illegally with resources from federal funds,' Gooden wrote.

Rep. Tiffany and two other members of Congress previously wrote to Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary, in December 2022 accusing the Biden administration of 'allowing [NGOs] the freedom to aid and abet illegal aliens'.

Scrutiny has also fallen upon smaller, local groups which help migrants who have recently arrived in the United States.

ANNUNCIATION HOUSE ACCUSED OF 'SMUGGLING'

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently accused Annunciation House, a prominent migrant charity in Texas, of 'alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house'.

Paxton's office said in a statement last week: 'The Office of the Attorney General reviewed significant public record information strongly suggesting Annunciation House is engaged in legal violations such as facilitating illegal entry to the United States, alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house.'

The attorney general reportedly demanded paperwork from the El Paso-based charity as part of an investigation into its work.

Groups of migrants wait outside the Migrant Resource Center to receive food from the San Antonio Catholic Charities on September 19, 2022 in San Antonio. Catholic Charities has been accused by lawmakers of 'encouraging migrants to travel to the southern border illegally'

Sister Donna Markham, a nun and leader of Catholic Charities USA, has said its work is 'humanitarian and motivated by the teachings of the gospels; it is not political, and it should not be controversial'

Catholic Charities San Antonio has spent at least $30 million on bus and plane tickets for migrants to travel onto other destinations in the United States

Annunciation House – which does not accept government funding and operates shelters which provide food, clothing and other support to recently-arrived migrants – refused the demand and issued a furious response which said Paxton's accusations were 'baseless'.

Ruben Garcia, the director of Annunciation House, said: 'I personally am taken aback by the use of words like "smuggling." To call our houses of hospitality "stash houses." Is there no shame-- to refer to houses of God, house of hospitality as "stash houses"?'

They are among several religious refugee non-profits which have fought back against criticism of their work.

Sister Donna Markham, a nun and leader of Catholic Charities USA, has said its work is 'humanitarian and motivated by the teachings of the gospels; it is not political, and it should not be controversial'.

Lee Williams, an executive at Global Refuge – the non-profit formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which was also singled out by Gooden – has said allegations it encourages illegal crossings are 'preposterous' and 'dangerous'.

Bensman called for funding for organizations which allegedly encourage migrants to illegally enter the country to be stopped. Migrants who plan to enter the US illegally are 'acutely acutely aware of the aid and assistance that they'll get once they cross the border', he said.

'That aid and assistance at the very least serves as a very intoxicating, powerful narcotic of incentive that's drawing them forward,' he said.

'They all know what they're going to get and who's giving it to them and where they're going to get it.'