Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars have reportedly been lavished on a non-profit, tax-exempt, California outfit known as Hermandad Mexicana Nacional -- Mexican National Brotherhood -- which it turned around and used to register noncitizens and illegal aliens in Orange County.

Observers say Hermandad would probably have continued to escape legal scrutiny had it not wound up in the middle of the disputed 46th Congressional District race between Rep. Bob Dornan (R) and Loretta Sanchez (D) -- who supposedly defeated Dornan by a margin of just 979 votes.

• According to the California Secretary of State, Hermandad's articles of incorporation state that its "specific and primary purpose" is to "provide non-profit, low-cost legal services to undocumented immigrant workers and their families and other low-income families."

• Between 1988 and 1993, the organization received more than $20 million worth of contracts from the state of California which had received most of that from the federal government -- with nearly $8 million coming in 1991-92.

• The money was to be used to pay for English classes for formerly illegal aliens who were given amnesty under a 1986 law.

• But according to Dornan's attorney, students in the classes were receiving political indoctrination and being registered to vote even if they did not meet the legal requirements.

The Los Angeles Times found that 30 percent of a sample group of voters registered by Hermandad were noncitizens. Others found that aliens were given completed voter-registration cards for their signatures -- a practice which is altogether illegal.

• Although some 11,000 voter registration cards submitted by Hermandad have still to be examined, the chairman of the California Republican Party found 672 fraudulent cards out of a batch of 1,100 he was allowed to examine.

• Hermandad also used some of its government money to sponsor illegal immigrants on lobbying excursions to Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

• As recently as October 1995, the U.S. Department of Commerce approved a $390,000 grant to Hermandad to purchase and operate a computerized job bank.

Source: Ira Mehlman, "Funding Fraud," National Review, March 24, 1997.