Who knew that Mark Zuckerberg would become the prominent immigration reform advocate we’ve been hoping for? After calling the issue “one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time,” in an exclusive interview with This Week back in 2013, the Facebook CEO and billionaire has been active in lobbying for change, co-founding the immigration reform advocacy group FWD.us, hosting a hackathon that invited young undocumented immigrants to develop digital tools to help the immigration movement, and spending millions on lobbying efforts.
Today, Zuckerberg announced via Facebook (of course) that he had donated $5 million to provide scholarships to more than 400 Bay Area DREAMers, via TheDream.US, a national scholarship program that funds education for immigrant youth.
This has been a big week for immigration advocates. A few days ago, protestors at Jeb Bush’s presidential candidacy announcement disrupted his speech, prompting an off-the-cuff remark from Bush: “The next president will pass meaningful immigration reform so that that will be solved – NOT by executive order.”
Read Zuckerberg’s post below.