The billionaire, pro-mass immigration Koch brothers’ network of organizations is gearing up for a full-fledged lobbying campaign to push lawmakers to pass an amnesty for up to 3.5 million illegal aliens enrolled or eligible for former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
At the Koch network’s winter summit in Palm Springs, California — as National Review’s Jim Geraghty reported — Charles Koch Foundation President Brian Hooks told attendees more than 200 House Democrats and Republicans have said privately they want to pass an amnesty for DACA illegal aliens but are concerned over backlash.
Still, Hooks and Americans for Prosperity executive Jorge Lima said they are confident that moderate Democrats and Republicans may arise this year to start a pro-DACA amnesty coalition.
Hooks said the Koch network’s philosophy on legal and illegal immigration is effectively allowing an unlimited level of foreign nationals to arrive in the U.S. so long as they commit to “contribute” to the economy — regardless of its impact on America’s working and middle class.
“We welcome anyone who will contribute, and keep out anyone who won’t,” Hooks said.
According to CNBC accounts, Hooks told donors that nationalism is just as much of a threat to the U.S. as socialism. The Koch network continues to promote the economic libertarian worldview of free trade-at-all-costs, busting up unions, and mass immigration to keep labor cheap endless for business.
Research of the American electorate finds there is little-to-no support for the Kochs’ economic libertarian agenda, with Republicans and swing voters preferring Trump’s economic nationalism that protects U.S. jobs and wages from foreign competition.
The Koch network’s campaign for DACA amnesty ahead of the 2020 presidential election will come after three years of similar legislative pushes that have failed each time. After the 2018 midterms, when the GOP lost control of the House, the Koch network pleaded with Republicans to quickly pass a DACA amnesty while they still had control of both chambers.
A DACA amnesty would put more citizen children of illegal aliens — known as “anchor babies” — on federal welfare, as Breitbart News reported, while American taxpayers would be left potentially with a $26 billion bill.
Additionally, about one-in-five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one-in-seven would go on Medicaid.
Any plan to give amnesty to DACA illegal aliens that does not also include provisions to halve legal immigration levels — the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants a year at the expense of America’s working and middle class — would give amnestied illegal aliens the opportunity to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country.
At the southern border, a DACA amnesty has the potential to trigger a border surge that could triple the number of illegal aliens pouring through the border. Since DACA’s inception, more than 2,100 recipients of the program have been kicked off because they were found to either be criminals or gang members.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.