I fear you are correct - the GOP establishment wants to return to being the neocon party that favors free trade deals and open borders to get more illegal labor that drives down wages.
The GOPe wants to move to the left. Basically a US version of the toothless Conservative Party of GB. Easiest way to do that is import a bunch of Democrats and shift the elecorate hard left. Then the GOP only has to be one inch to the right of the radical Dems to pick up every moderate and right vote. At least that is the theory. They all but admired it in Romney’s “autopsy report.” In reality if people want Democrat policies they will just vote for Democrats leaving the GOP out of power.
One huge problem: what would their minority bloc within a minority party with a Dem president in 2021 (God forbid) be able to do? Symbolic votes? The good fight for a lost cause every few weeks? Then voted out for a true Dem or Socialist?
Leftist younger voters are already chafing at old coots like Bernie, befuddled jerks like Biden or hags like Pelosi impeding their Socialist America dreams. And illegals will vote for the one who gives them the most goodies. Unlikely to be a GOPe.
Tucker Carlson’s ideology is the winning future formula for the GOP if they ever embrace it - which is why Democrats fear him - and the GOPe fears him also - because he is anti-neocon and free trade globalism.