WASHINGTON — Mark Zuckerberg wants to make 11 million new friends.
The Facebook billionaire unveiled a political group, FWD.us, backed by other high-tech honchos that will back immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens
“We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants, and it’s a policy unfit for today’s world,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece.
Other backers of the nonpartisan group include Google’s Eric Schmidt, venture capitalist John Doerr and Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer.
“We will use online and offline advocacy tools to build support for policy changes, and we will strongly support those willing to take the tough stands necessary to promote these policies in Washington,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Immigration legislation could help the tech sector in multiple ways — allowing for an orderly influx of low-wage workers who could manufacture products, while also boosting the number of H-1B visas for high-tech workers like programmers and engineers.
As the New York Post reported Monday, the immigration bill being developed by the Senate’s bipartisan “Gang of Eight” is expected to boost the number of H-1Bs from 65,000 to 115,000 — later hitting a cap as high as 200,000, based on the economy’s strength.
Lawmakers say they’ll release the plan any day now.