Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has asked the Trump administration to investigate who’s funding the anti-ICE protests around the nation, and is calling on his colleagues in Congress to tighten up election security.

“I want to know where it’s coming from, first of all,” Hawley told The Heartlander in an exclusive interview Thursday.

“ I think we’re seeing a real pattern here now, where these protests that erupted in, for example, Los Angeles last summer, they’re burning cars on the freeway, they’re assaulting cops. Then you’ve got what we’ve seen in Minnesota, Minneapolis, and elsewhere. You’ve seen other attacks on not just ICE agents, but other law enforcement agents. 

“And on our campuses – let me add that in as well, where we had all of the protests that turned violent on college campuses. 

“You’ve got the same groups of people allegedly funding all of them. This, I think, is something we need to bring into the light. Who are these people?”

Hawley’s formal request in a letter to U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi comes after a stunning report by the New York Post headlined “‘Grassroots’ anti-ICE campaigns funded by left-wing billionaire donors.”

“Anti-ICE protests in Minnesota may appear to be ‘grassroots’ efforts organized by concerned citizens,” the newspaper writes, “but they’re really funded with megadonor money – some coming from China.”

Citing a large anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis Jan. 30, the NY Post adds:

“Although framed as a spontaneous uprising of concerned, everyday people, the demonstration – like countless that have regularly metastasized during President Trump’s terms – featured a familiar cast of politically obsessed activists and terminally online characters.

“They organize on radical message boards and encrypted texting apps, but are backed by funds created by radical leftist billionaires.”

The newspaper even names names, such as:

Neville Singham, a former U.S. tech tycoon and avowed socialist living in Shanghai, China who Google reports is “currently under federal investigation for allegedly funding radical protest groups in the United States and spreading Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda worldwide.”

“Communist agitation groups allegedly funded by China-based millionaire Neville Singham have been leading the insurgency in Minneapolis, influence experts tell The Post.”

“Hungarian billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundation gives money to several protest groups that witnesses claim have been operating in Minneapolis since the civil unrest began late last year.”

Protests too choreographed, too alike to be organic

“I think we need to find out who it is,” Hawley tells The Heartlander. “We need to find out what their aims are. And where they are funding illegal activity, there needs to be legal consequences. 

“I’ve asked the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute. I’m going to do my own investigation. In fact, I’m holding a hearing next week on the subject. I think we’ve got to bring the facts to light, so there can be accountability.”

Hawley writes in his letter to Bondi:

“The scale, geographic simultaneity, messaging uniformity, and logistical sophistication of these operations strongly suggest centralized planning and financing inconsistent with lawful domestic advocacy.”

Hawley even raises the spectre of using the federal RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), which allows prosecutors to allege not just particular crimes but patterns of it.

“If foreign-linked actors are providing funding, direction, or material support for political activity aimed at undermining federal immigration enforcement,” he writes to Bondi, “such conduct may violate federal prohibitions on foreign influence such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, federal campaign-finance laws, and related criminal statutes. 

“The use of domestic intermediaries to conceal the source, direction, or control of foreign-linked funding may constitute conspiracy and money laundering. Taken together, coordinated activity of this nature may amount to racketeering.”

Why is election integrity so hard?

The Heartlander asked Hawley why his Republican leadership can’t seem to sell the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act), which, among other provisions, would require proof of citizenship in voter registration for federal elections.

“This is about the integrity of American democracy,” Vice President J.D. Vance said in a recent interview. “Do the people control who they elect?”

Ultimately, Vance says, who controls our elections – “the people who cast the ballots, or the people who count the ballots?”

Hawley says he supports the bill – and he puts a slightly different spin on Vance’s take:

“Well, what it really would do is decide whether or not the country is going to be run by those who cast the ballots or those who are here illegally – I mean, is it going to be run by the people, or is it going to be run by illegal immigrants? Is it going to be run by dark money groups on the left wing of the aisle? That’s the real question here. 

“I’m all in favor of the SAVE Act. I’m a sponsor of it. And the question is, are we gonna have voter ID in this country? Are we gonna have a ban on ballot harvesting? Are we gonna have basic proof of citizenship in order to vote? 

“Now, we already have all of those things in Missouri. We have these requirements. But many, many states do not. And the Democrats are totally opposed to them. And that just tells you they want to be able to go out there and, frankly, cheat in elections.

“They want to be able to [register] people up to the last minute, have [those] vote who aren’t citizens, who can’t prove that they even are here legally in the United States. We’ve got to put a stop to that and secure our elections.”