NCLR’s Muñoz Promoted To WH Domestic Policy Director

President Obama has elevated the one-time vice president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) from White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs to the more powerful and prestigious post of Domestic Policy Director.

That means Cecilia Muñoz, a renowned open borders lobbyist in Washington D.C., will be the president’s top adviser on domestic issues and she’ll coordinate the policy-making process and supervise the execution of domestic policy in the White House. Clearly the position wields tremendous power and influence.

This can only mean good things for the influential nonprofit she once led and lobbied for, the NCLR, which promotes itself as the nation’s largest Latino civil rights group. Months ago a Judicial Watch investigation uncovered that the NCLR, which for years has raked in millions of taxpayer dollars, has benefitted handsomely from Muñoz’s quick rise in the Obama Administration. In fact, the group’s federal funding has skyrocketed since she got her White House job in 2009.

JW’s probe revealed that government cash for the NCLR more than doubled the year Muñoz joined the White House, from $4.1 million to $11 million. A big chunk of the money (60%) came from the Department of Labor, which is headed by a former California congresswoman (Hilda Solis) with close ties to the La Raza movement.  The NCLR also received additional taxpayer dollars from other federal agencies in 2010, the JW probe found. The Department of Housing and Urban Development doled out $2.5 million for housing counseling, the Department of Education contributed nearly $800,000 and the Centers for Disease Control a quarter of a million.

Additionally, NCLR affiliates nationwide raked in tens of millions of government grant and recovery dollars in 2010 thanks to the Muñoz factor. An offshoot called Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) saw its federal funding nearly double to $18.3 million following Muñoz’ appointment. A social service and legal assistance organization (Ayuda Inc.) that didn’t receive any federal funding between 2005 and 2008 got $600,000 in 2009 and $548,000 in 2010 from the Department of Justice. The group provides immigration law services and guarantees confidentiality to assure illegal aliens that they won’t be reported to authorities.

Obama issued a special “ethics waiver” to bring Muñoz aboard since it violated his own lobbyist ban. At the pro illegal immigration NCLR, Muñoz supervised all legislative and advocacy activities on the state and local levels and she was heavily involved in the congressional immigration battles that took place in the George W. Bush Administration. She also brought in a steady flow of government cash that’s allowed the Washington D.C.-based group to expand nationwide and promote its leftist, open-borders agenda via a network of community organizations dedicated to serving Latinos.

The White House press release announcing Muñoz’s promotion this week says she also “leads the administration’s efforts to fix the broken immigration system so that it meets America’s 21st century economic and security needs.” Obama calls her a “trusted advisor who has demonstrated sound judgment day in and day out.”