The Libre Initiative: A Koch-Funded Group Being Passed Off As Empowering Hispanics

Fox News is passing off the Koch-funded Libre Initiative as a grassroots organization founded “to empower Hispanics” and advance “liberty, freedom and prosperity.” In reality, the group urges Hispanics to support policies that experts say go “against their own interests” and “disenfranchise Hispanic voters.”

The Libre Initiative was founded in 2011 and claims to be a “non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization that advances the principles and values of economic freedom to empower the U.S. Hispanic community.” The group “has a presence in eight states” and “plans to expand to Wisconsin and North Carolina this year and increase its staff by about 30 percent ahead of 2016.”

Fox has portrayed the group as the product of “a coalition of Hispanic leadership organizations.” But Libre is staffed by veteran Republican operatives, and the group has received over $10 million in funding from oil billionaires Charles and David Koch. Libre has admitted its message “aligns more with Republicans” and “with the principles and ideas of Charles and David Koch.”

The group promotes the agenda of people like the Kochs at the expense of Hispanics. Libre opposes the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which helps Hispanics get health insurance. They oppose a federal minimum wage increase, which would help more than 6.7 million Hispanics. They support voter ID laws that serve “to disenfranchise Hispanic voters.” They've joined Fox News in pushing misinformation about “illegals” and immigration. Libre has also campaigned against politicians that support immigration reform due to those politicians' support of the Affordable Care Act.

In this report about the Libre Initiative and the media: