Mexico's government sent cease-and-desist letters to American detention centers this summer and asked the United Nations to investigate US immigration enforcement.
Now investigators have uncovered who they brought in to fund it.
A former Bernie Sanders campaign operative ran point – and documents show exactly who Mexico recruited to finance the fight.
Mexico Foreign Ministry Recruited American Donors to Fund Sanctuary Cities Against ICE
On August 26, 2026, Mexico's foreign ministry co-hosted an online donor briefing with a firm run by Arturo Carmona – former deputy political director of Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign.
The agenda had one purpose: connect Mexico's consular network with American philanthropists willing to fund deportation defense.
Carmona's firm, Tzunu Strategies, listed itself alongside Mexico's foreign ministry as a co-presenter. Carmona himself was an advertised speaker, appearing on the program with a Mexican consular-protection official.
The briefing's stated agenda called for "Leveraging the Mexican consular network" – building tighter coordination between Mexican consulates, American nonprofits, immigration lawyers, and deep-pocketed left-wing donors.
Also on the speaker roster: representatives from two organizations that have fought in court to protect sanctuary cities from Trump's federal funding cuts.
Bernie Sanders Operative Behind the Anti-Deportation Donor Network
Carmona's political resume spans two countries and two radical campaigns.
Before running Tzunu Strategies, he served as digital media adviser to Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Mexican presidential campaign – making him a veteran operator for both American socialist politics and Mexican government interests.
His firm's staff tells the same story. Tzunu's chief operating officer previously directed Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's Office of Immigrant Affairs. Its media director previously worked communications for three anti-deportation groups – the same groups that appeared on the August 26 speaker list.
Those groups are not incidental players. The Immigrant Defenders Law Center – ImmDef – provides lawyers to contest deportation orders and ran a rapid-response program coordinating legal resources for nearly 2,400 people between June 2025 and January 2026.
The Central American Resource Center has fought alongside ImmDef in federal court to shield sanctuary jurisdictions from Trump's funding cuts. Their lawyers described that effort as working to "keep ICE in its lane."
Court filings aren't the only paper trail. ImmDef's own contracting documents show Mexico's Los Angeles consulate was already listed as a funder – a financial relationship that predates the August briefing by at least a year.
A Santa Ana city contract from 2025, valued at up to $750,000, placed the Mexican consulate among the funding sources ImmDef's lead attorney reported to.
The other philanthropic co-presenter, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, states its mission without apology: "Transform narratives, ideas, and cultural norms to facilitate and support migration."
GCIR's network spans more than 120 member institutions and 1,200 individual grantmakers. It claims credit for mobilizing hundreds of millions of dollars in immigration advocacy funding.
The August briefing's registration form screened for exactly the right donors – asking applicants whether they already funded immigrant defense, their geographic focus, and what type of funding vehicle they represented.
Mexico Foreign Ministry Used American Nonprofits to Fight Trump Deportations
The Mexican government – which filed criminal complaints with American state prosecutors over immigration enforcement and sent cease-and-desist letters to US detention centers – then convened a meeting with American left-wing donors to coordinate funding against Trump's deportation operation.
They used a former Sanders campaign operative as the connector. They recruited legal organizations already in active litigation against the administration. And they did it while simultaneously telling Washington they were cooperating on immigration.
President Claudia Sheinbaum framed it as a nationalist cause, calling the legal campaign "an issue for all Mexicans."
The August donor briefing was the fundraising arm of that same operation – run through American nonprofits, American philanthropists, and a Democrat operative with deep ties to both governments.
GCIR's transnational strategy calls for "transnational collaboration, power-building, and organizing." A dedicated forum brings its donors together across borders to coordinate immigration investments.
That is not a nonprofit doing charity work. That is a foreign government using American tax-exempt philanthropy as a financing mechanism to fight American law enforcement.
Trump's deportation operation is the largest in American history – and the Mexican government is working to build a donor network to stop it, using people who worked for Bernie Sanders and Eric Garcetti to make the introductions.
Sources:
- Natalie Winters, "Mexico's Foreign Ministry Backs Anti-Deportation Briefing With Former Bernie Sanders Aide's Firm," The National Pulse, September 11, 2026.
- "Mexican Government Sends Lawyers to Block ICE Deportations," Breitbart, July 14, 2026.
- "GCIR Our Impact," Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, gcir.org.
- Washington Examiner Staff, "US Deporting Mexican Nationals to Third Countries," Washington Examiner, August 2026.