Zuckerberg’s Cheap-Labor Group: ‘Defend Black Lives’

Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

The nation’s police forces “consistently target rather than protect Black people,” says a pro-migration, pro-amnesty advocacy group that was founded by wealthy West Coast investors, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

FWD.us was created by the investors in 2013 to help pass the “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill. The bill would have doubled immigration and removed many laws that defend white, brown, and black Americans against heap foreign labor.

The investors‘ group posted their message, titled “Defend Black Lives,” on June 1:

Always, and now certainly, it is critical that we listen to and support Black organizers – those with U.S. citizenship and those without – who are demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many others. We stand with them in fighting for accountability from the criminal justice systems that have failed on so many fronts, and which consistently target rather than protect Black people.

What gives us hope is the rallying cry, growing louder and more organized every day, that true public safety will not be achieved in America until we reckon with the ways the criminal justice system has harmed Black people, Black families, and Black communities, and until we commit to advance the policies and investments that defend Black lives.

Many other wealthy CEOs and investors are declaring support for the protests:

The FWD.us statement included illegal immigrant advocates on the list of “Black organizers.” But the statement from FWD.us did not refer to the looting and violence that has accompanied the anti-police protests.

In June 2014, FWD.us investors lost the fight for the “Gang of Eight” bill when primary voters in Virginia’s 7th district rejected their pro-amnesty, pro-migration GOP representative, Rep. Eric Cantor. Cantor was serving as the GOP leader in the House. In his place, the local voters picked Dave Brat, who then represented the district in November 2014.

Subsequently, Donald Trump displaced Gov. Jeb Bush and brought his populist “Hire American” policy into the White House.

Trump’s win put the investors who run FWD.us on the defensive.

FWD.us has counterattacked Trump’s pro-American policies by pushing a broader pro-migration agenda.

For example, FWD.us has organized Supreme Court protests to defend the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals amnesty and worked with pro-amnesty Democrats to legislate the DACA amnesty. The group also urged the passage of S.386, which would offer citizenship to more Indian migrants who take white-collar jobs in the United States.

FWD.us also set up groups to push for its goals in several states, such as Georgia. In New York, FWD.us helped pass legislation that allows illegals to work as food-delivery drivers for the delivery companies that are pushed by investors in FWD.us.

The group also expanded its causes into crime and punishment issues. It promotes the elimination of bail and the early release of criminals from federal and state jails.

But the group’s founding goal is ensuring plentiful supplies of foreign skilled labor. In 2013, Zuckerberg explained the group’s priorities:

Given all this, why do we kick out the more than 40 percent of math and science graduate students who are not U.S. citizens after educating them? Why do we offer so few H-1B visas for talented specialists that the supply runs out within days of becoming available each year …

FWD.us is now campaigning against draft White House curbs on investors’ use of H-1B visa workers.

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