My wife heard this on NPR this morning.

Problem:
The preposition “for” is inappropriate here.

Explanation:
Inserting prepositions where they don’t belong is becoming, unfortunately, a common English blunder.

The preposition “for” does not belong in the opening of the sentence that my wife heard.

“I would like” is a weaker way of saying “I want”.

Replacing “would like” with the stronger “want” gives us “I want for them to …”, where “for” certainly does not belong.

This confirms that “for” does not belong in “I would like for them to …”.

My suspicion is that the speaker believed that including “for” made him or her seem more educated — perhaps a form of hypercorrection.

Solution:
“I would like them to …”