A new installment in the ongoing Illinois “Doge Report” reveals just how deeply taxpayer dollars are embedded in the political machinery of progressive nonprofit networks. The latest example, detailed by Chicago’s Morning Answer and Wirepoints, spotlights Centro de Trabajadores Unidos (CTU), a nonprofit in southeast Chicago receiving $4 million in state funds to “build immigrant and worker power.”
Despite bringing in just $1.1 million in revenue as recently as 2022, CTU has been awarded multiple state grants—three separate $1 million Build Illinois bond grants and another $1 million this year—quadrupling its revenue with taxpayer subsidies. The organization’s programming includes advising undocumented immigrants on how to avoid detection by federal immigration authorities, even instructing on what parts of a workplace ICE cannot legally search without a warrant.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joined the show to discuss the broader implications of this taxpayer-funded patronage system. “These grants are used to fund the political infrastructure,” Dabrowski said. “They’re not just wasting money—they’re using it to build power.”
According to Dabrowski, such organizations are instrumental to maintaining the progressive political apparatus in Illinois, especially in Chicago. “These funds don’t go to help ordinary people,” he added. “They go to sustain the very networks that keep failed politicians in power.”
That point is underscored by another troubling finding from Wirepoints: Chicago has the highest Black unemployment rate of the country’s 15 largest cities. At 12.3%, it exceeds the next-worst city, Phoenix, by more than 25%.
“Chicago’s political leadership constantly claims to fight for equity and opportunity,” Dabrowski noted, “but the outcomes for Black residents tell a completely different story.”
The Wirepoints report found that Black residents in Chicago also face the third-lowest median household income among the same 15 cities—despite a political structure dominated by Democrats and numerous programs supposedly dedicated to racial and economic justice.
“Chicago has had complete one-party control for decades,” Dabrowski said. “And now we have Black leadership at nearly every level—mayor, lieutenant governor, members of Congress. And still, Black unemployment is higher than almost anywhere else in the country.”
Illinois’ economic stagnation under Governor J.B. Pritzker is another key driver of hardship. Among America’s largest metro areas, Chicago ranks last in economic growth since 2019. According to Wirepoints, regions like Atlanta and Houston—often dismissed by Illinois progressives as “regressive”—are seeing dramatically higher economic performance and better outcomes for Black residents.
“In places like Atlanta and Houston, Black entrepreneurs and workers are thriving,” Dabrowski said. “They’re finding opportunity that no longer exists here in Illinois.”
On the education front, the Chicago Teachers Union is facing internal dissent as its president, Stacy Davis Gates, runs for reelection amid scandals involving personal tax delinquency and private school enrollment for her son. Dabrowski, while skeptical of meaningful change, acknowledged the optics.
“She delivered the goods for her members,” Dabrowski said, referring to generous contract wins and staffing increases. “But in doing so, she’s helped accelerate CPS’s financial collapse.”
As the city prepares to spend $1.25 billion on “green social housing,” Dabrowski offered a warning: “Whenever they get large sums of taxpayer money to centrally plan these projects, the results are always the same—waste, inefficiency, and long-term damage.”
Between political patronage nonprofits, record-high Black unemployment, and economic stagnation, Dabrowski sees little to celebrate in the city’s current trajectory.
“We have great people, great geography, and incredible potential,” he said. “But under this leadership, that potential is being squandered—and it’s the very people they claim to fight for who are being left behind.”
For more in-depth analysis on Illinois policy and the “Doge” program tracking government waste, visit Wirepoints.org.