DACA gets a major boost from the most unlikely of sources

It appears that DACA participants just received new support from an unlikely source. While there has been a power struggle among House Republicans over the past few weeks with regard to forcing a vote on protecting recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a new powerful player has just stepped forward.

The far-right Freedom Caucus has been doing everything in its power to prevent the moderate Republicans from succeeding in bringing a discharge petition, which requires 218 signatures from House members, to force a vote on the House floor. With only a few more signatures required, billionaire Republican donor Mike Fernandez has just created a new headache for those opposing a vote to save DACA.

While Fernandez, who made his fortune in the healthcare industry, has long been a donor to Republicans, he actually gave more than $2 million to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. In an effort to ensure the House votes on a DACA bill, Fernandez has announced he will forego future donations to any Republicans who attempt to prevent the passage of a bill to save DACA. “Over the past 10 years, the Republican Party has received $47 million from me, in state, gubernatorial and party contributions. I’m not writing one penny to any of them anymore,” Fernandez told a reporter for Politico.

Fernandez, who was born in Cuba, is just one of a growing number of Republican donors that are finding themselves disagreeing more with Donald Trump’s policies and pledging to stop all future donations until more acceptable laws are passed for DACA recipients. Two additional Republican donors, Weather Tech CEO David MacNeil and former Exelon chairman John Rowe, stated just last week that they are already planning to reduce future payouts to Republicans until the issue is resolved. And it’s not just these wealthy donors that are holding back their money. Fernandez has mentioned that he’s “enlisted dozens of businesspeople in Florida, Tennessee, and North Carolina” who “will abide by that commitment” to also stop future donations to any politicians that refuse to vote in favor of saving DACA.

With only three more signatures required to reach the 218 threshold, it is likely that any Congressman who are on the fence of adding their support, while also needing additional funds for their upcoming election, will join the moderates on DACA. While Fernandez has previously made donations to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Fernandez has recently spoken out against Ryan, saying “I think he’s playing chicken and needs to get a backbone.” It is certainly refreshing to see wealthy donors who actually seem to care about people, and not just what type of returns they can get on their political investments.