Immigration reform news 2016: Mark Zuckerberg and others urge for immigration reform, takes on Donald Trump's policies
FWD.us, the political action group founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates along with other tech industry leaders, pushed for reforms of the immigration system at the Democratic National Convention this week.
The group, which was founded in 2013, was involved in panel discussions, press interviews, and conferences with members of Congress. At each event and meeting, it made the case for a comprehensive immigration reform that would keep foreign-born talents and entrepreneurs within the country.
"Our immigration system is 50 years old," FWD.us president Todd Schulte told Fox News. "It's important to have a legal immigration system that works."
Zuckerberg hired Schulte back in 2013, at a time when a comprehensive immigration reform bill was gaining ground and had passed in the Senate before failing to make it through the House.
Schulte explained the group's approach to Fox, saying that bipartisan is the only way it could advance its mission. From the start, the group has had ties to members of both the Democratic and the Republican parties.
Zuckerberg has met with both liberal and conservative lawmakers and pushed for the expansion of 1-B visas, streamlining the process for getting legal status, and helping undocumented immigrants get a legal foothold instead of rounding them up and deporting them as measures that would ultimately benefit the United States.
Indeed, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposed immigration polices would keep potential tech employees, along with many others, from being able to legally stay in the U.S. and work for Facebook, Microsoft, and the various other companies whose CEOs are on the FWD.us board.
In a press call, Basswood Research's Jon Lerner said that Trump's anti-immigration stand is no longer drawing voters to his side.
"Trump got mileage to date out of his position [on immigration] but that mileage is quickly running out and the electorate he has to appeal to now is very different," he said.