Koch Network: ‘Clock Is Ticking’ for Congress to Pass Amnesty for Illegal Aliens Before Midterm Elections

The billionaire Koch brothers’ network of donor-class organizations is lobbying members of Congress to pass an amnesty for illegal alien farmworkers ahead of the November midterm elections.

Last week, executives from the Koch-funded Libre Initiative joined officials from former President George W. Bush’s administration as well as farm owners to ask Republicans and Democrats to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act — an amnesty for as many as 2.1 million illegal aliens working on United States farms.

In a news release, Libre Initiative executives wrote that passing the amnesty plan is vital ahead of the midterm elections where Republicans are poised to sweep seats in the House and Senate.

“As a coalition member of [Alliance for New Immigration Consensus], immigration is a tough challenge we have set out to address,” Libre Initiative President Daniel Garza said:

Congress right now has a rare opportunity to take bipartisan action that helps farmers, such as the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. But the clock is ticking. Our coalition seeks to encourage Congress to act now, hash out the last remaining sticking points, and finally take action to address the serious labor shortage.” [Emphasis added]

Thanks to a tightened U.S. labor market, hourly wages for farmworkers have risen in recent years after decades of stagnation. Federal data shows that in 2021, field and livestock workers’ wages grew 6.5 percent from $14.62 an hour in 2020 to $15.56 an hour in 2021.

Even as Senate and House Republicans negotiated the amnesty plan last month with Democrats, the measure ultimately is likely to fail.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has repeatedly said he will not bring any amnesty plan to the House floor if Republicans take back the chamber following this year’s midterm elections.

Last year, as Breitbart News reported, 30 House Republicans helped Democrats pass the farmworker amnesty which ultimately stalled in the Senate. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the House GOP Conference Chair, was one of those 30 Republicans.

In 2013, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis stated that the “Gang of Eight” amnesty plan would “slightly” push down wages for American workers.

A 2020 CBO analysis stated, “Immigration has exerted downward pressure on the wages of relatively low-skilled workers who are already in the country, regardless of their birthplace.”

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