Koch-supported group pressures Congress to protect DACA kids


The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request from the Trump administration for approval of its plan to shutter the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on March 5, which means some pieces of the program will remain active even in the absence of congressional action.
But DACA recipients, who were illegally brought to the United States as children, are also finding help in another quarter. The LIBRE Initiative, a policy and activism shop supported by the Koch brothers' network, has launched a six-figure campaign to pressure Congress to make DACA protections permanent. The group is running online advertising that touts these young immigrants, also known as DREAMers, as "Americans and patriots," The Washington Post reports, "and incorporates messages of economic and family values as an appeal to conservative audiences."
"This situation has an expiration date. We can't afford to kick the can down the road," Daniel Garza, LIBRE Initiative president, told the Post. He supports "policy that allows DACA DREAMers to achieve their dreams but also strengthens America. We are all in on getting a reform that is going to allow that to happen."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Polling shows there is near-universal support for permitting DACA recipients to stay in the United States.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
'Less is more' in The Fifth Step
The Week Recommends Jack Lowden from Slow Horses is 'staggeringly good' in this new production at London's @sohoplace
-
Chessboxing: the unique sport becoming a global hit
Under the Radar The sport involves a full game of chess interspersed with rounds of boxing
-
Crossword: May 29, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
Deportations: Miller's threat to the courts
Feature The Trump administration is considering suspending habeas corpus to speed up deportations without due process
-
Trump pauses all new foreign student visas
speed read The State Department has stopped scheduling interviews with those seeking student visas in preparation for scrutiny of applicants' social media
-
Law: The battle over birthright citizenship
Feature Trump shifts his focus to nationwide injunctions after federal judges block his attempt to end birthright citizenship
-
Courts try to check administration on deportations
Feature The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to end protected status for Venezuelans, but blocks deportations under the Alien Enemies Act
-
Trump pardons Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery
speed read Former sheriff Scott Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal bribery and fraud charges
-
Germany lifts Kyiv missile limits as Trump, Putin spar
speed read Russia's biggest drone and missile attacks of the war prompted Trump to post that Putin 'has gone absolutely CRAZY!'
-
Tied Supreme Court blocks church charter school
speed read The court upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision to bar overtly religious public charter schools
-
GOP megabill would limit judicial oversight of Trump
speed read The domestic policy bill Republicans pushed through the House would protect the Trump administration from the consequences of violating court orders