Several corporate executives have joined forces with prominent local lawmakers, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and George Soros’ National Immigration Forum (NIF) to organize a campaign on Monday to target GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to get them to try to support amnesty.
Those executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Boeing CEO and chairman Jim McNerney, Marriott hotels chairman and CEO Bill Marriott, NewsCorp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, and Disney president and CEO Bob Iger.
Ballmer, McNerney, Marriott, Murdoch, and Iger, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro form the “Partnership for a New American Economy.” That group, along with Zuckerberg’s FWD.us and Soros’ NIF, are paying for activists to make it appear to lawmakers as though there is conservative support for comprehensive immigration reform in America. They are conducting a “fly-in” campaign, where those special interest figures will be paying to get people who support their position on immigration reform up to Capitol Hill on Monday to pressure House GOP lawmakers to support such a plan. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is also reportedly supporting the effort.
Ali Noorani, the executive director of the Soros-funded NIF, told Bloomberg News that the effort will bring in 600 activists who plan to have personal meetings with at least 80 House Republican members. Michael Bloomberg, as the Bloomberg News article highlighting the effort notes, is the majority owner and founder of Bloomberg News’ parent company, Bloomberg LP.
Noorani told his pro-amnesty partner’s publication that he will attempt to make it appear as though the conservative movement supports amnesty. “When was the last time that you saw the conservative movement calling for something? Most of the time it’s, ’Stop this,’” Noorani said. “No Republican member really wants to do this, but they’re going to be hearing from constituents demanding that they do it, and do it this year.”
Noorani’s organization is one where Soros has spent millions helping build support for amnesty. Soros has, over the course of several years, spent about $100 million of his own money lobbying for amnesty in the United States by creating the appearance of grassroots support for policies that he personally believes in and would likely be financially beneficial to Wall Street figures such as himself.
Noorani added in his interview with Bloomberg’s media outlet that while those flying in to Washington are not necessarily household names, they could be key campaign contributors of many of the members of Congress they are meeting. “These are the same people they’ll be sitting across from in a few months to ask for their vote or even for financial support,” Noorani said.
Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson, a corporate executive also lobbying Congress for amnesty, will greet the group at a reception Monday evening, Bloomberg News notes. “It is time for Congress to pass pro-growth, pro-security measures that modernize our truly dysfunctional immigration system,” Sorenson said in a statement. “That begins with an honest and serious debate about the status of the undocumented, our need for an efficient system for employers to verify work eligibility, and the current failure of our legal immigration programs to meet the actual needs of the labor market.”
The next day, on Tuesday Oct. 29, the group will meet with pro-amnesty leaders like Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) President Grover Norquist and American Conservative Union (ACU) President Al Cardenas at the pro-amnesty Chamber of Commerce, across the street from the White House in downtown Washington, D.C.
All the money these organizations are spending, and all the effort they are putting into this lobbying campaign, may be all for naught in the end. The event, which has been in the works for at least a couple of weeks, is now coming on the heels of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) officially backing off his support of comprehensive immigration reform in favor of a step-by-step approach. In a Breitbart News exclusive on Saturday, Rubio effectively un-endorsed his own legislation, the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” bill, by saying he is publicly opposed to a conference committee with it from any group of House piecemeal immigration bills.
Rubio’s decision to turn on the Senate bill as Senate Democrats, President Barack Obama, and these special interest groups gear up a key push could undercut their ability to get bills through the House of Representatives in what was clearly an effort Rubio’s spokesman described as a “ruse” to get a comprehensive bill past House members.
Even though Rubio has abandoned the bill, House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) still publicly supports what he says is an effort to try to “fix” the Senate bill in a conference committee. Ryan’s office has not responded to inquiries from Breitbart News as to whether he still supports trying to “fix” the Senate bill now that its lead sponsor, Rubio, has come out publicly against efforts to do so.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) argued in a July memo to his colleagues that Republicans can save themselves the trouble Rubio has gone through and do not need to go the way Ryan is proposing. Instead, Sessions argued Republicans should stand up for working men and women in America and fight against the elite special interests who do not have Americans' best interests in mind. In this vein, Sessions believes the GOP can win back the hearts and minds of lots of turned-off voters in much the same way that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and others have been doing in their battle against Obamacare: by standing up for Americans against Wall Street and Washington elites.
“Like Obamacare, this 1,200-page immigration bill is a legislative monstrosity inimical to the interests of our country and the American people,” Sessions wrote about the Senate bill to his colleagues. “Polls show again and again that the American people want security accomplished first, that they do not support a large increase in net immigration levels, and that they do not trust the government to deliver on enforcement."
"The GOP should insist on an approach to immigration that both restores constitutional order and serves the interests of the American worker and taxpayer," he argued. "But only by refusing any attempt at rescue or reprieve for the Senate bill is there a hope of accomplishing these goals.”
Sessions believes Republicans should turn this bill into a bludgeon with which to beat up Democrats and regain the support of the American people. “Instead of aiding the President and Senator Schumer in salvaging a bill that would devastate working Americans, Republicans should refocus all of our efforts on a united push to defend these Americans from the Administration’s continued onslaught,” Sessions wrote. “His health care policies, tax policies, energy policies, and welfare policies all have one thing in common: they enrich the bureaucracy at the expense of the people. Our goal: higher wages, more and better jobs, smaller household bills, and a solemn determination to aid those struggling towards the goal of achieving financial independence.”
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/27/Corporate-executives-join-Soros-front-group-Bloomberg-Zuckerberg-others-to-pay-for-fly-in-to-push-amnesty
