Facebook CEO donates $5M to scholarships for young immigrants

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife donated $5 million to a program that provides scholarships to children who were brought to the country illegally or overstayed their visas. 

The donation, announced in a Facebook post Wednesday, is going to TheDream.US, which was founded in 2013 by former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who served under President George W. Bush, former Washington Post publisher Donald Graham, prominent architect Henry Muñoz and Pulitzer-winning writer Amanda Bennett.

{mosads}The program has raised more than $80 million so far, according to The Wall Street Journal. The scholarships go to students who have qualified for the administration’s deferred action program, which delays deportations for many young immigrants. 

“Hundreds of thousands of young immigrants are part of our communities and attend school legally in the United States. Many of them moved to America early in their lives and can’t remember living anywhere else,” Zuckerberg said in his post. 

He said the donation would go toward scholarships for 400 immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area. Other scholarships in the organization go to some schools in New York, Illinois, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.  

Zuckerberg has been active in the immigration debate. He helped found FWD.us, an advocacy group that has lobbied and spent money during the campaign cycle to push for comprehensive immigration reform. 

In 2012, the Obama administration began a program that offered deferred deportation for some immigrants living in the country illegally who came to the country at a young age. Last year, President Obama announced he would expand the program 

The announcement was spurned by Republicans and some states, which attempted to block his action. The expansion did not take effect as scheduled in February because a federal court granted an injunction.