Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, along with LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman and more than 60 U.S. employers signed a brief on Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Pres. Obama's executive amnesty, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).
The United States v. Texas, as the case is now called will decide the fate of two so-called "deferred action" programs the President proposed in late November 2014, which would prevent undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from being deported, as well as adults whose children are lawful residents of the United States.
If the now eight-member Supreme Court upholds DAPA and DACA, the executive orders can temporarily shield up to 5 million immigrants without documentation from being deported and let them lawfully seek work in the meantime.
"Instead of inviting the economic contributions of immigrants, our immigration enforcement policies have often inhibited the productivity of US companies and made it harder for them to compete in the global marketplace," the brief reads. "America's immigration enforcement policies should ensure that immigrants' ingenuity, skills, and entrepreneurial spirit are contributing to the US economy and deferred action policies are a helpful start."
Zuckerberg was the most high-profile name on the list of 63 American businesses and executives, which included Redfin Corp., PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman and influential, San Francisco-based venture capitalist Ron Conway.
Zuckerberg is one of the three founders of FWD.us, a lobbying group focused on immigration reform that was started in 2013.FWD.us is an the immigration advocacy group which fights for increasing immigration, specifically increasing H-1B visa caps. FWD.us also supported Sen. Schumer and Rubio's Gang of Eight bill in 2013. Many high-tech companies including Facebook, Hewlett-Packard, and Disney have used H-1B visas to bring in cheap, foreign labor to replace American workers.
The Supreme Court is expected to start hearing the case in April with a ruling expected in June.
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