(The Center Square) – In the last year of the Biden administration, millions of dollars flowed from the city of Atlanta to nonprofits so they could aid migrants pouring through U.S. borders. A quarter-million dollars went to a Chicago-based Islamic activist organization that was raising money for Gaza at the time.
The Center Square wanted to know what, specifically, that group and others spent their grant money on. But for months, requests to the office of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, filed under the Georgia Open Records Act, have been answered with hefty price quotes ranging from hundreds to more than a thousand dollars.
The city wanted almost $1,400 to view records on a list of nonprofits that collectively received at least $5.7 million. The mayor’s office said pulling receipts, invoices and other backup records would require nine days of labor.
An open borders critic called the fee demands by Dickens’s office “obstruction.”
“It sounds like the city of Atlanta has not been doing much oversight of its own, if it has to spend so much time tracking down the records that you’re requesting,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. “It also sounds like they do not welcome the scrutiny.”
The city says it’s not hiding anything. Michael Smith, a spokesman for the mayor, said what’s so time-consuming is that all records have to be reviewed to remove any personal or confidential information. Georgia law allows governments to charge for “the search, retrieval, redaction, and production or copying costs” at the hourly rate of the lowest-paid full-time employee capable of compiling the requested records.
That means taxpayers not only paid for staff to generate the migrant assistance records in the first place, but someone has to pay again to check how well the city and its contractors managed the money.
Across the country, high fees for producing records have become a common deterrent to prying eyes, according to a new report by the University of Florida journalism school’s Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, which examined today’s precarious media climate.
“I think that’s something that governments in many cases choose to do, to jack up the costs,” said Rick Hirsch, Collier Prize director and a former Miami Herald managing editor, speaking generally and not specifically about Atlanta.
Hirsch said if journalists who must file dozens of public records requests in order to watchdog government spending can be shut down by high costs, then so can regular taxpayers.
“Five-hundred dollars is a lot if you’re somebody who’s trying to find out why a zoning change is happening at your corner, and you’re just a lay citizen,” Hirsch said. “I think it’s a little bit of spin to say, ‘Oh, it’s whining from news organizations, they should spend the money.’ That’s forgetting the ultimate purpose of why records are public, and also what the role of the media is. The role of the media is to be an advocate for the public.”
Where the funds came from
The money Atlanta paid to non-governmental organizations came from Federal Emergency Management Agency grants at a time when Washington was still doling out hundreds of millions of dollars to shelter, feed, clothe, transport, and provide other services for incoming migrants.
Before President Donald Trump took office and drastically changed course, taxpayers shelled out $1.72 billion, with the money distributed to nonprofits and local governments throughout the country. That included $715 million from a humanitarian subset of FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which morphed into the Shelter and Services Program and racked up more than $1 billion.
In an investigation published in January, The Center Square raised questions about Atlanta’s payments to a nonprofit called the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, or IMAN. Payment records available through the city’s online Open Checkbook show the group received five installments from August 2024 to January 2025 totaling $250,000.
The Center Square also reported that, while the city was paying the Muslim group, it staged a “Benefit Concert for Gaza” held in Chicago that raised money for another nonprofit that has been accused by Israeli watchdogs of aiding Hamas. The other nonprofit, Anera, strongly denies any links to the terrorist organization responsible for the Oct. 7 massacres.
IMAN’s Chicago and Atlanta offices did not respond to multiple calls and emails from The Center Square seeking interviews and information, nor to a message left in person at the group’s Atlanta branch on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
Since January, The Center Square has sought access to the receipts, invoices, vouchers, payment requests or other records turned in by the Inner-City Muslim Action Network and other NGOs. Other Atlanta recipients included Hispanic Alliance ($2 million), Inspiritus ($1.9 million), International Rescue Committee ($838,000), Latin American Association ($283,500) and Migrant Equity Southeast ($245,500), according to Open Checkbook records.
After the mayor’s office put a $1,368 price on backup records of seven nonprofits, The Center Square narrowed the request, but estimates for far fewer records still came back at hundreds of dollars.
For backup records on just two of the nonprofits, IMAN and Hispanic Alliance, Dickens’s office wanted $456.
Just to view receipts on the Inner-City Muslim Action Network alone, and obtain an accounting of how much money in federal grants Atlanta received and how it distributed the funds, Dickens’s office said the price would be $760. That was later revised down to $380 after The Center Square questioned the cost.
The price includes reviewing the records for any exempt information and making redactions. However it’s unclear if there are any redactions to make because the records haven’t been pored over yet by the mayor’s office, so the actual cost could end up being far less. The records are held by the Mayor’s Office of International and Immigrant Affairs.
“It’s hard to imagine what any privacy considerations would be,” Vaughan, of the Center for Immigration Studies, said. “This is public money, and the public has a right to know how it was spent. Particularly if there are questions about support of terrorists or terror-linked organizations, like Hamas.”
In the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability’s survey of 80 investigative reporters, 67% said lack of access is the greatest challenge to accountability journalism, and 44% reported delays, denials or excessive costs have been common hurdles to obtaining records.
“That’s not a new story,” Hirsch said, “but I think the trend is that it’s just gotten worse.”