Zuckerberg forms Silicon Valley super PAC to take on immigration

Mark Zuckerberg seems to be crossing into the political arena with FWD.us, a super PAC led by him and Silicon Valley’s leading entrepreneurs.

The Facebook founder and CEO announced the creation of the super PAC on Wednesday in an op-ed for the Washington Post. The Super PAC will advocate bipartisan policies to build what he calls the “knowledge economy” in the United States.

These policies, which range from immigration reform to improving technology in schools, are key to creating more jobs, innovation, and investment, Mr. Zuckerberg says.

“As leaders of an industry that has benefited from this economic shift, we believe we have the responsibility to work together to ensure that all members of society gain from the rewards of the modern knowledge economy,” Zuckerberg, the co-founder of the super PAC, wrote in the op-ed.

Among those on board are Google executive Eric Schmidt, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, venture capitalist John Doerr, and investor Ron Conway.

One-third of the residents in Silicon Valley are immigrants, according to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. This includes half of the work force and two-thirds of those under 18 in the area. The SVCF says the community is struggling with inadequate legal support services, infrastructure for both documented and undocumented immigrants, among other issues.

Samuel Evans, a history professor at the University of California, Berkeley, says the super PAC seems like an extension of a corporate, social-responsibility mandate. While it is too early to tell the direction the super PAC will take in its advocacy, he says, the organization seems committed to helping highly skilled workers that would benefit Silicon Valley, as well as others within the immigrant population.

“From an optimistic point of view, these people are trying to affect real social change,” he says. “…the whole point is it would be a larger reform for all of society [that says] ‘we don’t want to just be serving the interests of the company.’ ”

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