The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), an independent government agency, is doling out $20,000 to give art therapy to “unaccompanied and migrant children” from Mexico and Central America.
The grant will focus on providing migrant youth who recently arrived in Washington, D.C., with “therapeutic art programming,” which will help them in “reimagining their stories and visualizing their futures.” Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a group that works to prevent illegal immigrants from being deported, is the recipient of the NEA grant.
Migrant youth served by the program “will participate in a series of collaborative arts projects including a community mural, a theatrical and dance performance, and a virtual arts project,” according to a description of the grant. Funding for the program began in July and will continue until June 2024. (RELATED: Massachusetts To Spend $915,000,000 On ‘Emergency Shelters’ In Response To Migrant Influx)
“As with all NEA grants, this grant decision was made on the basis of artistic excellence and artistic merit as described in the application review page of the NEA website and as required by Congress,” an NEA spokeswoman told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
KIND provides legal resources “unaccompanied children through their legal proceedings,” according to its website. The group called on the Department of Homeland Security to cease deportations during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The federal government has paid KIND millions since 2021 to aid in accommodating migrant youth and resettling refugees, according to a government spending database.
Migrants from Venezuela, who boarded a bus in Del Rio, Texas, walk through Union Station after disembarking within view of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on August 2, 2022. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
KIND’s relationship with the federal government extends beyond grants and contracts.
Claire Trickler-Mcnulty, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official in the Biden administration, is an alumna of the organization.
KIND has also received significant backing from left-wing nonprofits, including the philanthropic arms of George Soros.
The Foundation to Promote Open Society, a nonprofit founded and funded by Soros, has given KIND more than $1.1 million since 2018, according to a grant database.
Soros’ nonprofits paid KIND to “counter family separation,” conduct immigration polling and “initiate a multi-year campaign to change the way governments and institutions respond to child migration.”
KIND did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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