Republican presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations, has scored the backing of Wall Street billionaires with a penchant for flooding the nation’s labor market with foreign workers.
On January 30, a who’s who of Wall Street’s billionaires will host a New York City fundraiser for Haley where tickets to attend start at $3,300 and go up to $33,200.
Among those cohosting the fundraiser are billionaires Cliff Asness, Stanley Druckenmiller, Henry Kravis, and Ken Langone. Economist Glenn Hubbard, a board member at BlackRock, is also cohosting the fundraiser.
The billionaires’ support for Haley comes as she has sought to revive former President George W. Bush’s corporate-friendly “Any Willing Worker” immigration policy, which allows companies to dictate legal immigration levels based on their wanting to hire foreign workers over Americans.
Already, the United States annually admits more than a million legal immigrants on green cards and another million on temporary work visas to take mostly blue-collar American jobs. This historically high level of legal immigration has driven the nation’s foreign-born population to a record 49.5 million.
“While Nikki Haley may have an ‘R’ behind her name, she leans left on immigration and cannot be trusted to bring back true immigration enforcement,” National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) President RJ Hauman told Breitbart News.
“She refuses to even call illegal aliens ‘criminals,’ when that is what they are. A vote for Nikki Haley is a return to Bush-era amnesty for illegal aliens and cheap foreign labor over Americans,” Hauman said. “It’s an ‘America Last’ approach to immigration.”
The billionaires supporting Haley have a vested financial interest in such an immigration policy as Wall Street lobbies to inflate the nation’s labor market to keep U.S. wages down, housing demand high, and jobs filled with employees who have no bargaining power.
In 2017, Asness joined other corporate leaders in begging then-President Donald Trump to throw out his constitutional travel ban and instead enact legal immigration policies to help the business lobby:
We urge you to reconsider policies that single out specific Muslim-majority countries; conduct a speedy and good faith review of security vetting procedures, preferably while allowing existing policies to remain in place; raise the arbitrary cap on the number of refugees admitted to the US; and enact policies that recognize the economic importance of immigrants and a robust refugee resettlement program aligned with the enduring values upon which this country was founded. [Emphasis added]
Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us — which lobbies for more overall immigration to the U.S. as well as amnesty for illegal aliens — counts Druckenmiller as one of its “major contributors” financially.
Most recently in August 2023, Kravis was among the biggest players on Wall Street to have signed onto an effort by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) that would have American taxpayers bail out the sanctuary state of New York for an influx in illegal immigration.
The goal of Hochul’s effort was to more easily funnel border crossers and illegal aliens into jobs by getting them healthcare services, housing vouchers, and free public transit.
While on the campaign trail, Haley parroted immigration policy from Hubbard. On several occasions, Haley said the federal government ought to give green cards to those foreign students who take enrollment spots at American universities when they graduate.
The policy would ensure more foreign competition in the white-collar labor market against newly graduated young Americans. Hubbard called the policy a “no-brainer” in 2019 while he was dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Business:
Half of my students at Columbia are not Americans. I would love to see all of them work in my country, not because I’m a saint, but because I’m selfish. I want the smartest people in the world to work here. I think for anybody who gets a higher education in this country — MBAs, engineers, doctors — this is a no-brainer. [Emphasis added]
As Breitbart News reported in 2016, then-Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton endorsed the same policy.
While Haley rakes in Wall Street cash, Trump won NICE’s endorsement.
“Trump has shown a commitment to the brave men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcing our laws and defending our country — precisely what the agency was created to do,” Hauman told Breitbart News of the endorsement.
“Trump will ensure that ICE actually enforces our laws, instead of being forced to ignore them,” Hauman said. “Under his leadership, ICE can finally return to the enforcement agency it was meant to be, making our nation safer and more secure.”
