Zuckerberg group: Delay on immigration ‘unacceptable’

The advocacy group backed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is launching a new round of ads aimed at keeping the pressure on Congress to pass immigration reform.

The ads from Silicon Valley’s FWD.us — backed by executives from Google, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, Instagram and Dropbox — highlight what the groups says is bipartisan support for swift movement on legislation.

FWD.us said the videos are “part of a large national buy, targeting cable and online outlets across the country.”

{mosads}“With this new round of ads, we want to make clear to Washington that delay on critical immigration reforms is unacceptable,” FWD.us President Joe Green said in a statement.

“We expect every one of our leaders to fulfill the promise they made to pass immigration reform.”

The videos come at a time when immigration reform faces increasingly long odds in Congress. House GOP leaders have warned not to expect votes on piece-meal legislation this year, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) last week ruled out going to conference with the sweeping bill that passed the Senate over the summer.

But led by FWD.us, the tech industry isn’t giving up its push for legislation.

In English and Spanish, the new FWD.us ads urge viewers to “Tell Congress: the time is now” to “fix America’s broken immigration system.”

“On the need to fix our broken immigration system, there are signs both political parties in Washington get it,” the ad says, followed by clips of President Obama and Boehner discussing the need to address the immigration reform. 

“I wouldn’t underestimate the House’s ability to pass the immigration bill,” one ad quotes House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as saying.

The tech industry has lobbied for an increase in H-1B visas, which would allow tech companies to hire foreign workers with advanced technical skills, such as computer programmers. Some criticize that push, saying it would displace American workers.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has been a vocal critic of Zuckerberg’s attempts to increase the availability of H-1B visas.

“Mark Zuckerberg made a glaring omission from his ad: the tech lobby’s push for a large increase in temporary guest workers to replace American workers – a central pillar of the Senate bill,” a spokesman for Sessions said Monday.