The executive director for the Koch brothers’ front group for Hispanic outreach, the LIBRE Initiative, reiterated the group’s support for Joe Heck this morning on NPR’s Morning Edition. In explaining his group’s opposition to Catherine Cortez Masto, who would be the first Hispanic woman to serve in the Senate, Garza praised Heck for his views on immigration reform. LIBRE, a group that claims to advocate for Hispanics, is supporting a man who believes the United States should end birthright citizenship. Conveniently, Garza also ignored Heck’s full embrace of Donald Trump–a man who wants to form a “deportation force” to expel 11 million people without papers.
LIBRE has a long history of attempting to broaden the GOP’s appeal to Hispanic voters while advocating for policies and politicians that harm those same voters.
Garza himself
testified against DAPA, which protects millions from being deported. Garza decried DAPA as “
executive overreach” at a congressional hearing. Of course, LIBRE conspicuously leaves all that out during their community outreach.
LIBRE opposed new overtime rules that disproportionately benefit Hispanic workers. The newly introduced protections
mean a raise for 2.1 million Hispanics currently exempted from overtime protections. Hispanics only
compose 11.6% of salaried workers, but represent 15.5% of newly protected workers. Furthermore, a staggering
48% of Hispanic women currently lacking overtime protections are now included. Being required to pay salaried earners a fair amount for overtime work would damage the Kochs’ bottom line. What’s good for the Kochs’ is good for LIBRE. What’s good for Hispanics is irrelevant.
The Kochs will spend millions through LIBRE on their sham Hispanic outreach during the 2016 election, but LIBRE’s efforts and priorities stand in stark contrast with the interests of the Hispanic community. No matter how much
voter data they aggregate or
turkeys they hand out, the reality that LIBRE puts the Kochs before Hispanics doesn’t change. Nothing quite illustrates that fact like LIBRE’s support of Joe Heck.
Published: Sep 13, 2016
