Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is entering the immigration reform fray, forming a non-profit group that will advocate for business-centric reform measures and a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.
The as-yet-unnamed group will be headed by Zuckerberg and other business executives, including his old Harvard roommate Joe Green, co-founder of NationBuilder and Causes and now a venture capital entrepreneur.
The group plans to focus on bringing highly skilled workers into the United States. Business groups often lament visa restrictions that prevent them from hiring as many technically and scientifically savvy workers from overseas as they would like, citing a lack of the proper skills in the American workforce.
Recently, Google stated that eleventh graders in Vietnam often have the computing skills necessary to pass the search giant's hiring tests, when many American college graduates who apply cannot.
The bipartisan immigration reform bill being crafted in the Senate has hit several snags over the number of work visas it will allow. Labor groups worry an influx of overseas labor will lower wages for American workers, so they want guarantees that immigrant laborers will be paid more than their American counterparts, to ensure there is less competition for U.S. workers. However, much of the contention centers on lower-skilled workers. In general, most parties agree the Unites States must cultivate talent from overseas if it wants to stay competitive in the tech industry.
Zuckerberg has been cautious about stepping into politics. He hosted a fundraiser for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, sparking protests in Palo Alto, Calif., where Facebook is based.
Zuckerberg has already donated millions of dollars of his personal funds to the new group, and his cofounders have all pledged several million dollars each.
It's likely the group itself will remain nonpartisan, and the strategists and consultants hired come from both sides of the political aisle. But two of the most prominent consultants have strong ties to the pro-business anti-tax wing of the Republican Party.
It looks like Zuckerberg may finally be showing off his personal politics. We'll see if Congress listens.
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