José Flores (from left), Ian Bautista, Ryan Ramnarace, Aldira Aldape of The Libre Institute participate in a panel discussion on criminal justice reform. Credit: Ivette Díaz

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The Libre Initiative, which attempts to spread conservatism among Latinos — or, in the eyes of critics, dupe them into working against their own political interests — has set up shop in Wisconsin, with about 70 volunteers based in Milwaukee.

Founded in 2011 and based in Texas, the organization has received considerable funding from billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch. Earlier this year, Libre expanded into Wisconsin, one of 10 states where it now operates.

The organization describes itself as a nonpartisan, grass-roots movement aimed at "informing the U.S. Hispanic community about the benefits of a constitutionally limited government, property rights, rule of law, sound money supply and free enterprise."

"My biggest priority as state director is economic prosperity," said Aldira Aldape, who was hired to head the Wisconsin effort in March.

But organizations like Voces de la Frontera, a Latino and worker advocacy group that has been in Wisconsin since 1998, see Libre as a thinly veiled political vehicle to advance policies that in practice hurt the Hispanic community.

"Libre is supporting Republican candidates like (Gov.) Scott Walker and (Sen.) Ron Johnson who are in favor of mass deportation," wrote Voces' executive director, Christine Neumann-Ortiz.

Critical voting bloc

Latino voters have become indispensable for both parties.

After President Barack Obama won 71% of the Latino vote in 2012, with Mitt Romney receiving only 27%, conservatives recognized that actively seeking inroads among Hispanic voters would be critical to future success.

In the intervening years, Libre — which means "free" in Spanish — has been building bridges in several states with Hispanic concentrations, mixing programs on free market economics with help in tax preparation, instruction on how to pass a driver's test, even free flu shots and Thanksgiving turkeys.

In Wisconsin, there will be 156,000 Latinos eligible to vote in November, a 15% increase since the 2014 midterms, according to the Pew Research Center. Analysts from pro-immigration groups say those voters could tip the scales in the critical Wisconsin Senate race this year between Sen. Ron Johnson and Russ Feingold.

According to FEC records, the super PAC for the Kochs' political organization Freedom Partners has spent about $2.1 million supporting Johnson and opposing Feingold, by far the most money spent by a super PAC in the race.

Federal tax records show that Freedom Partners has given Libre more than $15 million.

Representatives for Libre contend they do not move into states because of specific races, and do not support specific candidates or parties. Rather, they push policy positions and ideas, such as school choice and opposition to Obamacare. These are, nonetheless, bedrock Republican issues.

The same logic applies to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has drawn attention for his controversial proposals to deport undocumented immigrants on a massive scale and build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

"We're here advocating for issues; we're not involved in particular candidate," said Marilinda Garcia of Trump, though she also noted that his rhetoric "is obviously divisive and has caused consternation."

Garcia, a spokeswoman for Libre and a former Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, also asserted that the Koch connection is overblown, because the organization has more than 1,000 other undisclosed donors.

"Our donor base is not the Kochs. It's private donors and individuals from a broad swath of society," she said. "(The Koch brothers) lived the American dream themselves, so they have the right to participate just as much as any other person."

Thus far, Libre's Wisconsin branch has canvassed in Latino neighborhoods and hosted workshops on financial wellness and college readiness.

The group has also put on larger functions, including a forum earlier this summer about criminal justice reform, which was held by the organization's educational arm, the Libre Institute.

The three-hour event was open to the public and featured two panels with speakers such as Eloise Anderson, who serves in Walker's cabinet as the secretary of the Department of Children and Families, and Pastor José Flores, lead organizer for the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative.

About 30 people came to hear the panelists discuss the U.S.'s outsized prison population and rising costs of incarceration.

"This is an area where the government is actually failing us and not living up to its ideals and principles that we know about a just and free society," said Ivette Díaz, a Libre field director who helped organize the event.

Attendees were offered free sunglasses, lip balm, wristbands, notepads and pens all branded with the Libre logo, and treated to an Italian dinner.

The big prize of the night was an Amazon Kindle, which was raffled off at the end. To enter the raffle, participants had to fill out a form that asked for information such as their email and home addresses, views on criminal justice and opinions of Libre.

The privacy policy on the back of the form reads, in part, "we may share your information with our affiliates, associates and any other freedom focused entities."

Data collection efforts

As has been reported by The New York Times, Libre uses events like these to gather data for i360, a Koch-backed data analytics company that helps Republican candidates target specific constituencies using its sophisticated voter databases.

FEC records show that Johnson's campaign and the Kochs' Freedom Partners super PAC have paid the company a combined $1.98 million for access to this data and for its services helping Johnson's re-election bid.

"We work with i360 and leverage their technology to get a better understanding of the Hispanic community in the areas where we engage," Soledad Cedro, Libre's East Coast press secretary, told the Journal Sentinel.

Libre will continue to do research on Wisconsin's Hispanic community and hold events related to women and financial health. Over the long term, the Wisconsin operation will continue to hire more staffers and eventually set up an office, Cedro said.

Libre supports bipartisan, market-driven immigration reform that originates in Congress, though it does not endorse any specific plans or policies, according to Cedro.

"The president during his first campaign promised to deal with immigration reform," Cedro said. "Instead of working in a bipartisan way, he tried to do it his way or no way."

Such views are a red flag for Voces de la Frontera, which supported the president's immigration efforts.

"We're not going to let such an organization establish here knowing that they are going to damage our community," said Daniel Gutierrez, a Voces representative who handed out anti-Libre fliers at Tuesday's forum.

Voces plans to keep resisting Libre through social media campaigns, canvassing and showing up at Libre events. But Libre seems undeterred, and plans to be in Wisconsin for the long haul past election season.

Said Cedro, "We are here to stay."