Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told ABC News' David Wright in an interview for "This Week" from Mountain View, California that he saw immigration reform - an issue for which the 30-year-old entrepreneur has evolved into a high-profile advocate - as "one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time" and pushed for Congress to pass a bill overhauling the nation's immigration system. Zuckerberg added that he helped found the immigration lobbying group FWD.us, whose stated aim is to "promote policies to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy," after an undocumented immigrant told him during a visit to an afterschool program that he probably wouldn't be able to attend college because of his immigration status. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to watch a clip from the interview.
"When you meet these children who are you know, really talented, and they've grown up in America and they really don't know any other country besides that, but they don't have the opportunities that we all enjoy, it's really heartbreaking right?" he told Wright on Sunday. "And it seems like it's one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time." When challenged by Wright, who nodded to those who see undocumented immigrants as lawbreakers who have no right to citizenship, Zuckerberg responded that there were "a lot of misconceptions about that".
"A lot of them came here because they just want to work," he said. "They want to help out their families and they want to contribute. We definitely should make it so that they can, so that there's a path for them to come into the country legally as well. The future of our economy is a knowledge economy. And that means that getting the most talented people into this country is the most important thing that we can do to make sure that the companies of tomorrow are founded here."
RELATED: In New Reform Ads, Zuckerberg's FWD.us Expresses Frustration With 'Empty Rhetoric'
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
