The founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the founding of an organization with Silicon Valley gurus with bipartisan proposals for immigration reform.

The employer recalls an article in The Washington Post that the United States is a country of immigrants, and put his own family as an example, where his great-grandparents arrived at Ellis Island in New York, just like millions of immigrants in the nineteenth century.

"My grandparents were a postman and a police officer. My parents are doctors. I started a company," said Zukerberg, who believes that "none of this would have happened without a policy that welcomed immigration, a great education system and scientific community that are leaders in the world that created the Internet."

"Today, students should have the same opportunities, but our current system blocks them," stated Zukerberg, who also announced the creation of the pressure group FWD.us.

The group consists of leaders from the technology community like the co-founder of LinkedIn ,Reid Hoffman, the president of Google, Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, and the founder of Dropbox, Drew Houston, among others.

Zuckerberg, who teaches a workshop on entrepreneurship in his community, said that that one of his main students doesn't know if he will be able to go to college because he is an undocumented immigrant.

"His family is from Mexico and came here when he was a baby. Many students in my community are in the same situation; they moved to the U.S. and have no memories of living anywhere else."

"These students are smart and hardworking, and they should be part of our future," said the entrepreneur who believes that "we have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants. This policy has no place in today's world."

According to Zuckerberg, the economy has changed in the last century. It's not about exploiting oil and the use of manual labor and industrial machinery. It is now mainly based on "knowledge" and "ideas."

"The most valuable resources are the talented people we educate and attract to our country", because a knowledge-based economy "can go further, create better jobs and provide a higher quality of life for everyone in the country."

Zuckerberg says more than 40 percent of graduates in math and science are not U.S. citizens and regrets that they are not given a chance to stay in the country. "Why not allow entrepreneurs to come here when they want to start a company and create more jobs?"

Zuckerberg supports a "comprehensive immigration reform" that begins with an effective security policy at the border, and that will allow "a path to citizenship and attract the most talented and hardest working people, no matter where they were born."

His goal is to work with Republicans and Democrats in Congress, the Government, and the states to support policy changes and support future generations.

Editorial@sandiegored.com

Omar.Martinez@sandiegored.com