EVANGELICAL GROUP PUSHING IMMIGRATION REFORM DOESN'T LEGALLY EXIST

◼ Late last week, The Huffington Post reported that the Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition of evangelicals supporting the Senate immigration bill, had announced a $250,000 ad buy in support of the legislation. - The Blaze

...On Thursday, Breitbart News contacted the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT), asking about the organization's structure, how it is governed and where it receives funding. The organization responded Friday in an email to Breitbart News:

The Evangelical Immigration Table functions as a coalition of partners and does not exist as its own non-profit.
The principal organizations that serve as the coalition’s leadership are listed on our website and include Bread for the World, the Christian Community Development Association, CLUE Orange County, Esperanza, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, Sojourners, World Relief and World Vision.

That invites an obvious question: Who paid for its ad campaign? The email continued:

The organizations that make up the leadership of the Table are predominantly 501(c)3's but some have affiliated 501(c)4's.
Funding for our work comes from a variety of sources including the organizations that make up the leadership of the Table as well as other individuals and institutions that believe in our message.

Early in the formation of the Table’s work, the leadership sought a neutral third-party institution, the National Immigration Forum, to help facilitate our work.

So, the EIT is made up of a coalition of (c)3's and (c)4's but isn't itself a legal non-profit organization or corporation. How did it launch the ad campaign reported in the Huffington Post? Loose, informal coalitions cannot purchase advertising. There are also strict limitations on what activities (c)3's and (c)4's can undertake, and clear prohibitions on them coordinating on an issue campaign....

◼ NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM FUNDED BY SOROS AND THE LEFT - Matthew Boyle/Breitbart

The National Immigration Forum (NIF), the force behind the so-called “Evangelical Immigration Table” (EIT), is actually a front group for players on the institutional left including billionaire George Soros and the Ford Foundation, according to reporting by Breitbart News and other outlets....

Wallis originally denied being funded by Soros when he was first confronted with the accusation, and accused Olasky of lying. “It’s not hyperbole or overstatement to say that Glenn Beck lies for a living. I’m sad to see Marvin Olasky doing the same thing,” Wallis said in 2010 interview with Patheos. “No, we don’t receive money from Soros. Given the financial crisis of nonprofits, maybe Marvin should call Soros and ask him to send us money.”

“So, no, we don’t receive money from George Soros,” Wallis added. “Our books are totally open, always have been. Our money comes from Christians who support us and who read Sojourners. That’s where it comes from. In fact, we’ve had funding blocked, this year and last, by liberal foundations who didn’t like our stance on abortion. Other liberal groups were happy to point out to them that our stance wasn’t kosher on abortion, so our funding was blocked.”

After Olasky and the National Review’s Jay Richards confronted this claim by Wallis, Wallis admitted he made an incorrect statement to Patheos and that he was accepting Soros money. “I should have declined to comment until I was able to review the blog post in question and consulted with our staff on the details of our funding over the past several years,” Wallis said in a statement.