As President Donald Trump\u2019s DACA deadline passed on Monday, the putatively conservative Koch Brothers are working overtime to keep the dream alive.<\/p>\n
The LIBRE Initiative<\/a> \u2013 a Koch-funded group launched to \u201cempower the U.S. Hispanic community\u201d \u2013 has produced ads<\/a> portraying beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as \u201cpatriots.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe love our country, our way of life, and we sacrifice and fight to defend it,\u201d the ad begins, narrated by the voice of a DACA illegal alien. \u201cWe work hard, put food on the table, care for our families, and we pledge allegiance to this flag.\u00a0We are patriots. We are DREAMers.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>While congressional Democrats insist on a sweeping amnesty for illegal aliens, the Kochs are pressuring their bankrolled Republicans to make a deal. But the gauzy DACA story doesn\u2019t wash \u2013 and lawmakers know it.<\/p>\n Congressional hearings<\/a> and the Congressional Budget Office<\/a> have painted a less-dreamy portrait:<\/p>\n This profile of dependency seems at odds with the \u201cfree market\u201d Kochs. But strip away the patina of patriotism, and their corporatist agenda of cheap imported labor and immigrant-fueled population growth is exposed.<\/p>\n A DACA amnesty \u2013 pairing chain migration and anchor babies — has the potential to legalize 3 million illegal aliens to legally compete against Americans for working- and middle-class jobs.<\/p>\n The Kochs are either willfully ignorant of the negative effects of amnesty, or simply don\u2019t care. They are similarly dismissive of the dangerously weak vetting of DACA applicants. Since President Obama created the program by executive order, more than 2,100 DACA recipients have been removed for criminal acts or gang membership.<\/p>\n No amount of flag waving can nullify these inconvenient facts.<\/p>\n The Kochs\u2019 departure from conservative political principles may do little to enhance their brand, but it should be enough to call their true allegiances into question.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n