The online pro-immigration pressure group FWD.us, which was co-founded by the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has staged a Day of Action in order to exert pressure on members of the House of Representatives to give their support to immigration reform legislation in the fall.
Zuckerberg founded FWD.us along with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the founder of DropBox, Drew Houston, and the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman. The pressure group supports the idea of reforming the immigration system in the United States so that more talented foreign workers can be employed by IT firms, claiming that the current system is so restrictive and slow that talented workers are simply unable to obtain US visas, and the American economy is suffering as a result.
FWD.us encouraged their supporters on the 10th of September to send emails to their representatives in Congress to urge them to support immigration reform. The group has also been urging its supporters to make use of Twitter in order to tweet their Congressional representatives on the issue in the hope of creating a storm on the social media site in favor of reform legislation.
Congress has now returned to Washington after their summer break. The Senate passed the comprehensive immigration reform bill created by the bipartisan Gang of Eight back in June, but the House of Representatives has not been nearly so supportive of the bill. With Washington seemingly split along party lines more than ever, reform advocates worry that the House will kill attempts at reform.