Both ends of the political spectrum have their boogeymen – secretive billionaires who bankroll efforts to remake America according to their own shady political ideologies. For those on the right, that boogeyman is George Soros, while those on the left can point to David and Charles Koch (with a combined net worth of about $100 billion) as the embodiments of all that is evil, cynical, and un-American.
Appropriately, immigration serves as a central tool in both the Soros and Koch efforts to force their dystopian visions on a reluctant American public. For Soros, immigration is a means to undermine the unity and cohesiveness United States and, in doing so, diminish its oversized influence on the world. For the Koch brothers, immigration is a means to fulfilling their libertarian vision of a world in which business interests have unfettered access to the cheapest possible labor.
A glowing article in Time magazine (with the appended disclaimer at the end reading, “Time Inc., TIME’s parent company, was acquired by Meredith Corp. in a deal partially financed by Koch Equity Development, a subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc.”) details the efforts by the Koch-financed LIBRE Initiative to advance the cause of virtually unrestricted immigration.
Headed by Daniel Garza, a former operative in the George W. Bush administration, LIBRE is mounting an all-out effort this summer to pressure Republicans into supporting their vision of immigration reform, i.e. mass amnesty and unchecked immigration. The group, with a staff of 60, is “organizing five public rallies in the next week aimed at shaking loose a congressional stalemate on immigration, highlighting yet another looming deadline for courts to decide how to handle children who came to the country illegally,” reports Time.
In addition to the public rallies, LIBRE is working behind the scenes to turn up the heat on Republican lawmakers in ten swing states in advance of the midterm elections. “It’s a top priority for our network. We’re putting our money and our resources and our team where our mouth is,” says Garza. Even in the current Congress, LIBRE forged an alliance with the National Council of La Raza (recently rechristened UnidosUS) to help block legislation that would have reduced overall immigration. In Garza’s estimation, any reduction in immigration is “unacceptable.” “If you made these policy decisions that would restrict legal immigration, then you would hinder the ability to address market forces and the private sector to hire who they need to hire,” making it clear exactly what the Kochs’ agenda is.
It’s just not the American people’s agenda, but that matters little to either the Koch brothers or Soros.