Facebook's Zuckerberg Wants Immigration Reform

Credit: jdlasica / Foter / CC BY-NC

Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, is behind a new advertisement that promotes immigration reform.

Described by The Hill as a "pro-immigration conservative group," Zuckerberg's FWD.us kicked off an ad campaign last week with a one-minute video. Titled "Serve," it presents the story of Alejandro Morales, who was brought to the United States as an infant. Morales participated in ROTC, and explains that he aspires to serve in the military, but cannot because he is not a legal citizen.

"We hope that by showing Americans the cost of this broken system and the contributions people like Alejandro are already making, they will join with us in supporting real reform," said Joe Green, President of FWD.us. Green co-founded the advocacy group with Zuckerberg.

The Hill writes that the ad will air "in 13 major TV broadcast markets across the country," as well as on cable and the web. This will include border-state cities such as Phoenix, Tuscon, Albuquerque, and San Antonio. Other major cities that will see the ad are Chicago, Washington D.C., Tampa, and St. Petersburg.

Today, Zuckerberg is hosting a roundtable discussion in Utah about immigration reform with technology firms, investors, and a bipartisan group of politicians. The Hill explains that the economic aspect of a comprehensive reform is meeting's focus.

"This is something that we believe is really important for the future of our country—and for us to do what's right," Zuckerberg said last week at the premiere of Documented, a film about immigration. According to the Guardian, it was the web mogul's first public remarks about the subject.

According to another article by The Hill, Zuckerberg also funded a pro-immigration television ad in support of Paul Ryan's plan.

Comments

[The Late P Brooks]

he aspires to serve in the military, but cannot because he is not a legal citizen.

I think this needs some fixing.

[Hugh Akston]

You think we should tell Alejandro what soldiers are expected to do?

[Brett L]

I'm pretty sure they mean legal resident. You don't have to be a citizen to serve in the US military.

[Cdr Lytton]

True but you do have to be a citizen to be commissioned as an officer.

[SIV]

Those damn xenophobic conservatives!

NOamnestyEVER
? a day ago

THE GREEDY KOCH BROTHERS, PATRON SAINT OF FASCIST WALL STREET LOOTERS, JUST PAID TO HAVE PAUL RYAN AND MARK ZUCKERBERG MATED.

[Irish]

Wow. The Kochs get it from crazy ass liberals and crazy ass conservatives.

[SIV]

That would be a liberal in the above comment. "Greedy" and "looters" are your dead giveaways.

Most pro-immigration lefties bitterly oppose any reform that would threaten their rice-bowl.

[DJF]

Yep, you don't have to be a citizen to join the military, you can be a legal resident.

Also the military is going to have to cut tens of thousands of personnel in the next couple of years so there is not need for more personnel

[Live Free or Diet]

cannot because he is not a legal citizen.

Not true. Legal resident aliens can join the army.

[CampingInYourPark]

I'm sure they publish this with the same fervor they do the availability of SNAP.

[The Late P Brooks]

I just don't get the obsession with citizenship. People should be able to come into the country and work; there is no compelling need for them to be citizens.

[Sidd Finch]

I just don't get the obsession with citizenship.

That's not a particularly hard nut to crack.

[Irish]

Democrats want to import poorly educated voters that can be made dependent on programs that the Democrats like. If they aren't citizens and are bettering their lives by getting a job, how does that help the Democrats?

[Jon Lester]

I wonder if that's why they don't feel moved to change policy regarding immigrants and visitors from eastern Europe? Putin has proposed a visa-free regime between the US and Russia, but Biden and Obama dismissed the idea out of hand.

[The Late P Brooks]

Some idiot (possibly Schumer) was on the teevee last weekend babbling about how a legal "guest worker" system would create some sort of oppressed underclass, so apparently every single person inside our borders must be made a citizen. At gunpoint, if necessary, I suppose.

[Sidd Finch]

Described by The Hill as a "pro-immigration conservative group," Zuckerberg's FWD.us

One would think naming your group after Obama's 2012 slogan would give the politicos at The Hill some clue about your political leaning. One would think.

[Irish]

One would think naming your group after Obama's 2012 slogan would give the politicos at The Hill some clue about your political leaning.

Apparently Zuckerberg's group has been very pro-Keystone pipeline. Hardcore leftists were planning a Facebook boycott over it. I don't think Zuckerberg is quite as left-wing as many of his contemporaries.

[Sevo]

"Apparently Zuckerberg's group has been very pro-Keystone pipeline. Hardcore leftists were planning a Facebook boycott over it. I don't think Zuckerberg is quite as left-wing as many of his contemporaries."

He also invited Christie to speak at one of the Bay Area events; enough to cause the local lefties to faint.
He is off the reservation in a couple of ways.

[Faceless Commenter]

What's his case for importing non-English-speaking, low-skill workers and their dependent families? Or does he make one, I just can't motivate myself to investigate Zuckerberg's "policy."

[kinnath]

Sadbeard gets stupider every day

http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon.....e_but.html

[Rufus J. Firefly]

damn you people who link to that guy. It exposes me to a level of stupidity I never thought could exist. Did you read some of those comments? Those people consider themselves fucking "liberals?"

No they're not. They're statist-socialists. End of story.

Consider a response about pro sports (NBA in this case):

"Well, it isn't fair that because they happen to have be tall and athletic, they should have much more money than people who are short and slow. The answer is to flatten the income distribution through taxation and redistribution."

What. The. Fuck?

This is NOT liberalism.

It's tyranny. Tyranny of the envious and retarded.

[kinnath]

Yeah, I used to think it was evil that someone could get paid 1,000 times more than an engineer just to throw a rubber ball through a net from 30 ft away.

But, I eventually had to come to terms with the fact that no one will pay a thousand bucks to have a court side seat to watch me create PowerPoint slides.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yet, no one would deny an engineers function in society is more important.

Dems how ze apples fall, eh?

I guess one could compare the average engineering salary over a career and compare it to pro sports to get still more of a picture.

[kinnath]

Yet, no one would deny an engineers function in society is more important

It's not about importance. It's about a straightforward market transaction. The value of labor is limited to the price a customer will pay to get the product of that labor. Customers will pay some amount of money to get safer planes, trains, and automobiles. But they'll pay lots of money to be entertained for some brief period of time.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I think you just made my point. We know "safety" is in our best interest but we're willing to plump down more on entertainment.

Good point about the "brief period of time" point. Definitely a straightforward market transaction.

[Calidissident]

It's not just about importance, scarcity really matters. There's a lot more engineers than there are elite professional athletes.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And good luck, by the way, arriving at an average in sports. Too many factors. I keep hearing "8 to 10 years" but if I were to guess that's for successful ones who avoided injury. A large population of athletes don't necessarily reach five years with most spending a lot of time on IR or being sent down to the farm or whatever. That would likely bring the average down.

Never mind the differences in sports. Pretty sure it varies from sports to sport. With football (with a much larger roster with more positions) and hockey being the most volatile and basketball (with the smallest roster), baseball and soccer perhaps managing longer careers.

And please leave golf off the table.

[Timon 19]

In soccer, most of the more elite forwards will end up retiring around 37 or 38 at a maximum. Guys like Alan Shearer are exceptions. The last 4 years of that are usually them bouncing around lower leagues for shitty, unreliable pay or finding retirement leagues/leagues with owners with more money than sense (Qatar, China, Russia) for a big last payday and very little effort expended. This last category tend to be stars, rather than average players.

Midfielders tend not to last much beyond the forwards.

Defenders and goalkeepers bring the average up, but not many but the very elite can make a good payday past 38 or so.

From what I gather, that's not much different than baseball or really anything but football.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well, considering mids are expected to do more in a crucial position that's not surprising. Unless they play 'trequartista' like Totti and they may be able to play longer as he has.

[Nick Schweitzer]

Paul Ryan's plan is pro-immigration?

[Faceless Commenter]

Yes. The Catholic says it's "the right thing to do." Our Betters coercing virtue once again.

[Cdr Lytton]

Can we trade Zuckerburg straight across for a foreign national?

[Faceless Commenter]

How about Prince Harry? Zuckerberg splits with his Facebook code, the prince brings his little black book.

/posted for the benefit of male Reasoners, aka everyone but me

//so sad I'll never get to make jokes on behalf of females

[The Late P Brooks]

I think it takes a fairly perverse outlook on life to believe that a person deserves lifelong economic hardship as a consequence of his parents' having lived in an old house near a freeway when he was a toddler. But the name for that social system is "meritocracy."

Holy shit.

What's Yglesias' excuse? Was he dropped out of a third story window head first onto a pile of cinderblocks as a child?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

The Beard is an alien symbiote that lives by eating his IQ points.

[kinnath]

The Beard is an alien symbiote that lives by eating his other people's IQ points.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's their new kick in explaining why some people succeed over others: Where they grew up.

They will deny and postpone as much as they can other factors like worth ethic, morality, determination and drive etc.

Because apparently we all naturally have those traits. I think they move from that point and spring into houses by freeways.

Like Bugs Bunny who refused to give up his hole to the construction worker. Bugs came out alright, no?

[Cdr Lytton]

Well it's certainly one explanation for Sad Beard's professional career.

[Faceless Commenter]

What? Both parents in the house? BOTH? A HOUSE, did you say, not a tenement? And proximity to superior transportation?

[Acosmist]

Billionaires need welfare too. MURICA

[Calidissident]

Of all the articles to post this comment on, this one seems like an odd choice

[Gladstone]

So does Reason support any Immigration reform no matter what?

[James Ard]

I think it would only be fair to point out that Zuckerberg was also behind the radio ads put on by Americans for a Conservative Direction. When you have to play name games to fool people into believing the Senate bill is a conservative piece of legislation, you aren't strengthening the legitimacy of your argument. And before the Reason types jump my crap, I don't want to spend a penny more on border security, but I see amnesty as a injustice to those who waited in line.

[ibcbet]

Also the military is going to have to cut tens of thousands of personnel in the next couple of years so there is not need for more personnel. They will deny and postpone as much as they can other factors like worth ethic, morality, determination and drive etc.