Amazon, Chevron, and Wells Fargo Are Fueling a Constitutional Crisis

Andrew Perez, Tim Dickinson and Tessa Stuart
·8 min read
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Amid Texas’ refusal to grant federal agents access to a 2.5 mile stretch on the southern border, the Republican Governors Association has backed this Lone Star rebellion against the Biden administration. And the vast majority of that committee’s corporate donors, including some of the most recognizable brands in America, are standing by silently.

As part of an escalating campaign to repel migrants attempting to cross into the United States — including refugees who have a right under international law to seek asylum — the state of Texas has resorted to extreme, even barbaric tactics, including using razor wire and buoys booby-trapped with saw blades. Most recently, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed state authorities to block U.S. Border Patrol agents from accessing an area near where a woman and two children reportedly drowned in the Rio Grande. Texas has continued to block access to the area, even after a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the Biden administration to remove the blockade.

Some Republicans have rushed to back Abbott in the standoff — including 25 GOP governors, who signed onto a letter published by the Republican Governors Association. “We stand in solidarity with our fellow governor, Greg Abbott, and the state of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border,” the RGA letter reads. It asserts states have a “right of self-defense,” and maintains that the Biden administration has “attacked” Texas for seeking to “protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants.”

It’s a sobering document, coming from the closest thing to the mainstream of the GOP: the official party committee that works to elect Republican gubernatorial candidates. The RGA is heavily funded by major corporate brands, as well as wealthy individuals who have espoused pro-immigrant rhetoric. The Texas standoff with the federal government offers yet another marker of the asymmetric radicalization of the GOP in the age of Donald Trump — a development that has not affected business-as-usual corporate support for the Republican Party.

Rolling Stone contacted 77 large donors to the RGA that contributed amounts ranging from $100,000 to $3 million to the committee in the first half of 2023. They include Big Oil (Chevron, Marathon Petroleum); Big Tech (Amazon, Google); a big bank (Wells Fargo); Big Pharma (GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Genentech); and major health insurers (UnitedHealthcare, Aetna). Few of these firms responded at all. None of those that did respond expressed concern about the RGA’s standoff with the federal government.

The largest donor, by far, to the Republican Governors Association in the first half of last year was Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds. Griffin gave $3 million to the Republican Governors Association in the first half of last year, eclipsing the group’s second-largest donor by a factor of three. Griffin has previously claimed to be “terrified” by anti-immigrant political rhetoric. “Our entire country is built on the work ethic of immigrants,” he said at a conference in 2017.

But his views appear to have changed. Griffin did not respond to questions about whether he endorses the RGA’s rhetoric, whether he agrees that the country needs to be “protected” from migrants seeking a better life in America, whether he endorsed the use of razor wire at the border, and if he will continue to donate to the RGA going forward. Instead, Griffin told Rolling Stone in a statement: “Americans are fed up with the chaos at our Southern border and the federal government’s inept policies. Even President Biden realizes he has a real crisis on his hands. Rolling Stone is hypocritical in criticizing Governor Abbott for taking action when the federal government has clearly failed. Like most Americans, I believe our border should be safe and secure while preserving a path for people to legally immigrate to America to seek a better life.”

Griffin, though, was alone in publicly defending Abbott’s tactics. The vast majority of the RGA’s major donors, including Molina Healthcare (the second-largest supporter of the RGA after Griffin), Walmart, Comcast, AT&T, and Amazon did not respond to requests for comment. Ditto other large donors including AFLAC, DoorDash, Planet Fitness, Churchill Downs (which puts on the Kentucky Derby), and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Several of the companies that did respond, including American Electric Power, Genentech, and Tyler Technologies, characterized their gifts as routine bipartisan activity in service of advancing their corporate interests. A representative for CVS Health noted that the company “donated an equal amount to the Democratic Governors Association last year,” adding that its political contributions “are by no means a blanket endorsement of an individual’s or organization’s position on every issue.” Genentech highlighted its support of the governors associations for both major parties based on its advocacy for “increased investment in scientific innovation … and the protection of intellectual property rights.” It emphasized that “our donations are not and should not be viewed as an endorsement of every policy” a recipient supports.

The RGA’s reactionary approach at the border appears to conflict with the philosophies of other prominent donors, including Koch Industries, controlled by billionaire oil and gas titan Charles Koch. The Charles Koch Foundation, for example, declares that “immigration is good” and that “welcoming immigrants who are motivated to improve their lives and contribute to society will enrich America.” The foundation supports initiatives “to open America to everyone who will make the country better off.” Koch Industries donated $300,000 to the RGA in the first half of 2023.

The consultancy Deloitte gave $150,000 to the RGA. The firm is immigration friendly and even markets its services to “help clients develop successful strategies to address immigration challenges worldwide.”

Liquor giant Diageo is an RGA donor, also giving $150,000; it celebrates its importation of tequilas from Mexico including Don Julio, Astral, and Casamigos. The Mexican spirit is a big driver of revenue, the company’s “third largest category globally.”

The RGA, by contrast, is upfront about its anti-immigrant priorities. In its “about us” section, the group describes its member governors as “at the front lines of protecting our border, because the Biden administration won’t.” These same governors who are, en masse, attempting to provoke a constitutional crisis also claim “they’re actually solving problems instead of causing them.”

The RGA did not respond to an inquiry from Rolling Stone. Of the nation’s GOP governors, only Vermont’s Phil Scott did not sign onto the RGA letter. Several GOP governors have pledged to go even further to back Abbott, including by sending National Guard troops to Texas.

Republican governors are couching their border defiance as a supposedly sober, constitutional impasse over the rights of states versus those reserved for the federal government. The RGA letter asserts blandly that Texas is legally “justified” in its lawless approach because the Biden administration has “abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states.”

But any cool constitutional consideration quickly falls away the further down this provocative action filters to the Republican rabble. The reaction of the MAGA masses makes clear that the RGA’s corporate-sponsored message is, in fact, fanning flames of civil unrest.

TheDonald is a Reddit-like forum for rabid fans of Donald Trump, and it was infamously used to orchestrate the uprising of Jan. 6, 2021. At that site this week, four of the Top 10 posts (as upvoted by users) relate to the Texas border standoff. Many of the posters are spoiling for a fight — hyping the potential for “civil war” and expressing foul contempt for the conservative Supreme Court. Others have been sadistically advocating for even deadlier measures to deter asylum seekers at the border.

Many commenters at TheDonald blasted the Supreme Court. The court is hardly liberal, enjoying a right-wing supermajority. The ruling enabling the Biden administration to take down concertina wire at the border was supported by conservatives Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts and the court’s liberals. (The pro-razor wire caucus was justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh) “Fuck’em!” wrote one commenter. “They nullified our constitution.” Another user demanded: “All the States need to send Troops to TEXAS! The Supreme Court and the feds have declared war on the USA!”

Harkening back to deadly conflicts in American history, another user demanded red states join a “Compact Against D.C. Aggression,” with a “signing ceremony at the Alamo.” Another commenter suggested militia-style action against federal intervention: “Have some armed patriots go Bundy Ranch style on any Feds showing up to cut the wire.” Several commenters directly called for armed conflict: “This fucking government is cancer and needs to be cut out and thrown away,” wrote one. “I’m ready for civil war.”

Many other commenters at TheDonald fantasized about making Abbott’s border fortifications even more deadly. They wrote of electrifying the razor wire; making migrants brave minefields or packs of alligators; and even adding snipers’ nests to, as one user put it, “finish off the ones who made it thru the moat and are crawling out of it with an appendage or 2 missing.”

Underscoring that the cruelty is the point, still another another user suggested that such deadly spectacle at the southern border should be leveraged for sport: “Put bleachers on the U.S. side,” this user wrote, “and sell tickets and refreshments.”

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