WASHINGTON, DC --  National Legal and Policy Center today blasted the United Way of New York and its September 11 Fund for making a grant of $171,000 to the Legal Aid Society, a group that is apparently providing legal assistance to eight individuals detained as a result of the investigation into the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In a letter faxed to Joshua Gotbaum, executive director of the United Way of New York, NLPC demanded that the United Way immediately seek to recover the funds, seek an accounting of resources expended on behalf of the detainees, and require that future grants only go to groups whose agendas are "not inconsistent with the interests of actual or potential terror victims."

The letter read, in part, "Americans generously donated to the September 11 Fund to help the victims of the terrorist attacks. They did not contribute to help the terrorists, their supporters or people arrested or detained because they violated immigration laws."

The September 11 Fund had received $334 million in contributions and pledges as of October 26, according to its website. On November 1, the Fund announced the grant to LAS to "provide emergency civil legal assistance to low-income attack victims."

On November 1, the Wall Street Journal reported in an article ("Detainees on INS Breaches Held in Solitary Status") that the LAS was providing civil legal assistance to eight detainees in the Special Housing Unit of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The article quoted Janet Sabel, identified as the head of the immigration division of LAS, as saying that the detainees "are being held in isolation, treated as security risks and interviewed by the FBI with almost no opportunity to first get counsel."

Through its Legal Services Accountability Project, NLPC has monitored abuses by legal services programs since 1993. NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm said, "After exposing and documenting hundreds of instances of waste, fraud, and abuse over the years, this would seem to be the most troubling betrayal of the public trust we have ever come across."

NLPC President Peter Flaherty said, "With all the questions about the fund raising on behalf of victims, this has to be the most shocking development yet."

NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action. NLPC currently sponsors the Government Integrity Project, the Organized Labor Accountability Project and the Legal Services Accountability Project.

Read NLPC's letter to United Way of New York and its September 11 Fund

Return to Media Release Page
 
Return to Home Page