By ,
Published December 22, 2016
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has been active in politics in recent years, planned to meet with Sen. Marco Rubio during the lawmaker’s visit to California on Wednesday.
The Florida Republican is in the Golden State to raise money for his re-election effort as well as his political action committee, Reclaim America.
The meeting was to take place on the Facebook campus, said several published reports.
At 29 years old, the billionaire is trying to use his influence to push for comprehensive immigration reform and give a boost to various politicians on both sides of the political aisle who are seen as potential presidential candidates.
Zuckerberg hosted his first political fundraiser in February for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, and also has donated to the Senate campaign of Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat, according to Bloomberg.com.
Zuckerberg has maintained a high profile on the push for comprehensive immigration reform, especially for components that would expand employment-based visas and provide a legal status for undocumented immigrants brought as children.
Earlier this month, Zuckerberg appeared at a screening of “Documented,” a movie about undocumented immigrants and spoke about the need for immigration reform.
In the San Francisco appearance, Zuckerberg said his interest in an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy surpassed just bringing in more high-tech workers from overseas. He said he wants a way for millions of undocumented immigrants to be able to legalize their status.
Americans for a Conservative Direction, a group funded by Zuckerberg, bought about $350,000 worth of TV ads pushing immigration reform in the Milwaukee-area congressional district of Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican.
The spots, which are to run through the beginning of September, defend Ryan’s support for comprehensive immigration reform, and note that it would also tighten border security and require undocumented immigrants who want to legalize to pay back taxes, TheHill.com reported.
Little was disclosed about what Zuckerberg planned to discuss with Rubio, but some published reports quoted unidentified sources as saying the issues would probably include immigration reform.
Rubio was part of the Senate’s so-called “Gang of Eight,” made up of four Democrats and four Republicans who drafted a measure that called for strengthening border security and providing a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants who meet certain criteria.
Rubio was one of the most vocal champions of immigration reform this year, especially in the months leading up to the Senate’s passage of the reform bill in June.
The Senate passed the bill, but now it is pending in the House, where it is meeting with opposition by some conservative Republicans who say they will not support an amnesty.
Since the Senate passed the measure, Rubio has fallen nearly silent on the matter, instead devoting most of his public attention on denouncing Obama’s health care reform law.
In a recent interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Zuckerberg said his activism for immigration reform did not sit well with everyone at Facebook.
"When we were first talking about doing this, a lot of people actually were worried that it was going to be a problem for Facebook," he said.
But he took it up as a cause, anyway.
"There are 11 million undocumented people who came here to work hard and contribute to the country," he said, "and I don't think it's quite as polarized as people always say."
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mark-zuckerberg-meets-with-marco-rubio-immigration-reform-likely-topic