Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration lobbying group is again pushing for amnesty for all of the country’s illegal immigrants.
Zuckerberg’s FWD.us group released a report this week titled, “The Case for Protecting Legal Immigration Against Recent Attacks,” and it calls on lawmakers to “create a path to citizenship for Dreamers” and “provide permanent protections” for those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and “ultimately all 11 million” illegal immigrants.
“Our immigration system is clearly broken and requires substantial reform, but those changes must protect and expand current immigration levels, not make it harder for immigrants to contribute to our country and economy,” the report reads. “The responsibility of reforming immigration laws resides with Congress, which should take up legislation to modernize the immigration system, starting with passing legislation to create a path to citizenship for Dreamers.”
The report blasts the Trump administration and its allies for attempting to reduce legal immigration, approving fewer fiancé visas, and eliminating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and TPS for certain groups.
It also criticizes the Raise Act’s proposal to limit so-called “chain migration” and the Secure and Succeed Act’s proposal to eliminate the diversity visa.
The report also slams the Trump administration for its travel ban and enacting reforms (“more narrow interpretations of statues and regulations”) to the H-4 and H-1b visa programs.
Claiming that the United States, which already has the world’s most generous immigration policy, is “facing a fundamental, existential question,” about immigration, the report declares that the Trump administration “must reverse its attempts to use the regulatory and policy process” to make mass immigration more difficult.
Zuckerberg’s pro-amnesty group assembled a bipartisan group of Swamp lobbyists after the 2012 election to push massive comprehensive amnesty legislation that would have also given technology companies huge increases in H-1b visas. The Gang of Eight’s amnesty bill failed, but Zuckerberg’s activist group continued to push for a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers.
But when President Donald Trump earlier this year indicated that he would sign a bill that gave a pathway to citizenship to DACA recipients in exchange for limits to legal immigration and funding for the border wall, Democrats and left-wing groups associated with them balked. These groups claimed that limiting legal immigration was “offensive” and demanded citizenship for the parents of DACA recipients as well.
Pro-amnesty groups (and some corporatist Republicans) are hoping that Democrats will take back Congress and push another comprehensive amnesty bill that allows nearly every illegal immigrant to remain in the country without any cuts to legal immigration.