PHILADELPHIA – August 20, 2025 – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has terminated $8 million in federal grants to organizations with documented ties to Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups following a Middle East Forum (MEF) investigation. In an unprecedented acknowledgment to Fox News, DHS officials confirmed they “take the results of the MEF report very seriously and are thankful for the work of conservative watchdog groups.” This marks the second time this year that MEF investigations forced the federal government to halt funding to terror-linked entities.
Following MEF’s revelations, DHS launched an independent review of all current and future contracts while implementing what officials describe as a “robust” vetting process for fiscal year 2025.
The sweeping action—canceling 49 projects with alleged affiliations to terrorist activities—came weeks after MEF’s July 21 bombshell study “Homeland Insecurity: Unraveling DHS Funding of Terror-Linked and Extremist Groups” exposed more than $25 million in grants to radical nonprofits between 2013 and 2024. The multi-year investigation by Benjamin Baird, director of MEF Action, revealed that American taxpayers had unknowingly funded organizations that federal agencies themselves describe as fronts for Hamas operatives, including the notorious Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia, which hosted 9/11 hijackers and received a $100,000 grant in 2019.
Following MEF’s revelations, DHS launched an independent review of all current and future contracts while implementing what officials describe as a “robust” vetting process for fiscal year 2025. The new requirements prohibit funding to organizations that refuse to cooperate with immigration officials or engage in discriminatory boycotts—reforms that directly address the systematic failures MEF documented across the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). Originally intended to protect religious institutions from hate crimes, NSGP instead enriched entities with ideological links to Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“Ending taxpayer funding to Islamist organizations, some of which sympathize with terrorist organizations, is a key element of our mission,” said Baird, whose investigation uncovered $10.3 million in Hurricane Harvey disaster relief that went to the Islamic Circle of North America, accused of operating as the American wing of the violent South Asian Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami. “We commend DHS for taking our findings seriously and acting decisively, and we urge Congress to implement permanent vetting and transparency reforms.”
The most egregious cases exposed by MEF include $750,000 to Michigan and Texas mosques that DHS itself characterized as “outposts for Iran’s revolutionary brand of Shi’a Islamism” and $250,000 to the Council on American Islamic Relations, which the department has accused of having Hamas ties. MEF’s investigation further revealed that FEMA had actively partnered with these organizations, holding seminars to encourage their participation in the very grant programs meant to protect Americans from terrorism.
DHS officials told Fox News they are now exploring ways to recoup unspent funds from the canceled projects, acknowledging that “we don’t want to be empowering groups that could be causing a threat to our community here in the United States.”
This marks the second victory for MEF’s watchdog efforts in 2025. In February, MEF executive director Gregg Roman’s congressional testimony exposing $122 million in U.S. Agency for International Development grants to terror-linked groups prompted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to pledge criminal referrals to the Department of Justice and resulted to cuts in a $9 billion recissions package reforming international assistance funds.
DHS officials told Fox News they are now exploring ways to recoup unspent funds from the canceled projects, acknowledging that “we don’t want to be empowering groups that could be causing a threat to our community here in the United States.” The department’s admission validates MEF’s decade-long campaign to expose how the federal bureaucracy continued issuing checks to ideological extremists while claiming to protect the homeland.
“MEF is watching—whether the money is intended for foreign aid, public education, or homeland security—and we will not rest until every last cent allocated to terrorist-aligned groups is returned to American taxpayers,” Roman said. “The systematic failures we’ve exposed at both USAID and DHS demonstrate an internal threat that is far more insidious than most Americans realize. Our investigations have now saved taxpayers over $130 million that would have otherwise enriched organizations hostile to American interests and values.”
The Middle East Forum, a non-profit organization founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes, promotes American interests and Western values in the Middle East. MEF accomplishes its mission through intellectual and activist efforts. For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
roman@meforum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
