Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) seemingly hit back against former President George W. Bush’s amnesty coalition in remarks on Friday, demanding that the Republican Party reject open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.

During the keynote speech at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Pennsylvania, DeSantis rebuked recent amnesty suggestions by Republican lawmakers and Bush’s amnesty coalition. DeSantis said:

There’s a lot of talk about unity or disunity in the Republican Party, this person, that person … I will tell you this, as we look forward to the fights ahead, we cannot — indeed we will not — go back to the days of the failed Republican establishment of yesteryear.

We are not going to do that. We have to reject open borders, we have to stand for the rule of law and American sovereignty. And we cannot be for amnesty in any form. We’ve got to stand with the American people and we have to put Americans first. [Emphasis added]

DeSantis’s remarks come after months of Bush’s lobbying Republican lawmakers to help President Joe Biden’s administration pass amnesty for the roughly 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States.

The lobbying has been in coalition with corporate interests such as the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the Bloomberg-funded New American Economy, the Texas Association of Business, and taxpayer-funded refugee contractors.

Bush’s plan is merely a revitalization of his highly unpopular “Any Willing Worker” policy from the early 2000s, where his administration sought to open the nation’s borders to millions of illegal aliens willing to take low-wage jobs from Americans while increasing legal immigration to drive down U.S. wages in the labor market.

The amnesty coalition is hugely opposed by Republican voters, polling has shown.

A poll by the Koch-funded Cato Institute, which lobbies for mass immigration, revealed that 6-in-10 Americans want less overall immigration to the U.S. — including 75 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of conservatives. The survey also showed 72 percent of Americans would prefer less immigration and more public benefits over more immigration and less public benefits.

Likewise, the Cato Institute poll found that opposing birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens is a mainstream Republican viewpoint. More than 6-in-10 Republicans said they oppose the so-called “anchor baby policy,” along with 65 percent of voters who supported President Trump in 2020.

The most recent Rasmussen Reports survey shows that 82 percent of Republicans support nationwide mandatory E-Verify, 78 percent oppose amnesty for illegal aliens, 57 percent want legal immigration levels cut at least in half, and 75 percent say the U.S. has enough skilled Americans to take high-paying jobs and thus does not need to import more foreign visa workers.

In April, DeSantis ordered a statewide crackdown on illegal immigration in response to the Biden administration’s forcing the release of criminal illegal aliens into American communities. The crackdown includes requiring state agencies to pursue all legal means in turning criminal illegal aliens over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as requiring the state notify local communities every time an illegal alien is released.

Other initiatives spearheaded by DeSantis have included banning sanctuary cities across Florida and mandating E-Verify for public and private employers who have state contracts to prevent illegal aliens from taking U.S. jobs over Americans. DeSantis has previously suggested to Breitbart News that he will push for an expansion of mandatory E-Verify.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.