Koch-Sponsored Group Decries Trump’s Immigration Proposals

National Journal

By Alexia Fernandez Campbell

September 9, 2015

Koch-Sponsored Group Decries Trump’s Immigration Proposals 

A con­ser­vat­ive Latino en­gage­ment group fun­ded by the bil­lion­aire Koch broth­ers has taken a stand against Don­ald Trump’s im­mig­ra­tion policies.

The head of the LIBRE Ini­ti­at­ive, which teaches Lati­nos about liber­tari­an ideals, said Wed­nes­day that he re­jects the idea of re­vok­ing birth­right cit­izen­ship and op­poses mass de­port­a­tions of oth­er­wise law-abid­ing im­mig­rants.

“Such pro­pos­als are not in line with our prin­ciples and are not in the best in­terest of our coun­try,” said Daniel Gar­za, ex­ec­ut­ive dir­ect­or of the LIBRE Ini­ti­at­ive, in a state­ment re­leased Wed­nes­day.

Gar­za ad­ded that these policies would in­trude on the lives of law-abid­ing Amer­ic­ans and place a bur­den on tax­pay­ers.

This is the first time the con­ser­vat­ive group has spoken out against Trump’s ex­treme views on im­mig­ra­tion. The move also re­flects grow­ing ten­sions between the vast Koch polit­ic­al net­work and Trump’s pres­id­en­tial cam­paign. The Koch broth­ers, who pour mil­lions of dol­lars in­to Re­pub­lic­an cam­paigns, de­cided this sum­mer that Trump was wrong for the GOP, ac­cord­ing to Politico.

Since 2011, the grass­roots LIBRE Ini­ti­at­ive has fo­cused on woo­ing Lati­nos to­ward the right. It pro­motes small gov­ern­ment, point­ing out the draw­backs of Obama­care and in rais­ing the min­im­um wage. The group also of­fers free help with taxes, GED pre­par­a­tion, driver’s li­cense tests, and cit­izen­ship.

Though the or­gan­iz­a­tion has a pro-im­mig­rant stance, it has also been cri­ti­cized for be­ing an arm of the Koch broth­ers, who put tons of money be­hind Re­pub­lic­an can­did­ates who op­pose im­mig­ra­tion re­form, ac­cord­ing to The Wash­ing­ton Post.

The na­tion­al group, based in Texas, has ex­pan­ded to battle­ground states, in­clud­ing Nevada, Col­or­ado, and Vir­gin­ia.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com