Joe Guzzardi: Zuckerberg’s immigration investment

By Joe Guzzardi
December 18, 2013

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s $20 billion net worth founder, has invested a large chunk of his money into destructive comprehensive immigration bills, one in the House and another, already passed, in the Senate. Zuckerberg’s goal through his pro-immigration lobbying group FWD.org, is to triple legal immigration by increasing H-1B and other work visas and granting amnesty to 12-20 million aliens already living in the U.S.

Although the Congressional Budget Office has reported that immigration legislation under consideration would depress American wages for at least 10 years, Zuckerberg and his fellow Silicon Valley billionaires like Microsoft’s Bill Gates have ratcheted up their commitment to import more cheap labor.

Last week, FWD.org spokesman announced that it would rely on Facebook more extensively in the coming weeks to gather wider support for immigration reform. The organization has also suggested it would contribute heavily to legislators’ campaigns if they vote for more immigration.

No matter how much money Zuckerberg and his allies spend to increase immigration, the inarguable fact is that the U.S. has a glut of workers in all job categories and across all demographic spectrums. Adding millions to the labor pool would hurt Americans. According to U.S. News & World Report, even those well-educated that the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts as employed are barely scraping by. In 2012, 284,000 college graduates worked at minimum wage jobs, up from 127,000 in 2006.

Zuckerberg et al., promote the idea that America has a skills shortage crisis that can be resolved through importing millions of foreign-born workers. Yet the evidence proves that there’re millions of talented, eager and willing Americans in virtually every field. Several non-partisan sources confirm the ample supply of U.S. labor.

In September, the Federal Reserve Bank, a long standing H-1B visa proponent, confirmed that the U.S. does not have a tech labor shortage and that an expansion in green card programs like the H-1B is not warranted.

In May, the Columbia Journalism Review published a study which concluded the pro-immigration lobby’s strategy to add jobs to what it calls “the beleaguered U.S. economy,” is really “a narrative that has been skillfully packaged and promoted.” But instead of being essential to the national interest, “it reflects the economic interests of tech companies and universities.” Columbia’s findings are consistent with research from other prestigious academic institutions like University of California, Davis, Rutgers and Georgetown.

In short, there are thousands of American workers available that Zuckerberg won’t hire because of his lust for cheaper immigrant labor to increase his already obscene net worth.

Zuckerberg’s daunting agenda and his readiness to spend millions to keep his Internet immigration boosterism going may not yield the results he’s looking for. Some consider Zuckerberg an untrustworthy snake oil salesman. Others were offended when he said that an illegal alien amnesty is comparable to the 1960s black civil rights movement. Still others wonder why anyone would listen to a selfish, self-serving tycoon.

Despite his many detractors, expect more Zuckerberg immigration championing in early 2014. Money is no problem. Assuming Zuckerberg invested his $20 billion in an ultra-conservative bank certificate of deposit that yielded 1 percent per annum, he’d earn about $600,000 in interest every day. That impressive interest-only sum can pay for virtually unlimited advertising time.

JOE GUZZARDI is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow whose columns have been syndicated since 1986.