Zuckerberg Immigration Group Targets Steve King
Zeke J Miller
April 18, 2014 8:05 AM ET
TIME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=K3e2Lg0LiSM
A pro-immigration reform group supported by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will launch a TV and digital ad campaign against Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King for his comments about not wanting immigrants to earn permanent residency if they joined the military
The pro-immigration reform group backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is launching an ad campaign against Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, accusing him of “attacks on American soldiers and the military” for his staunchly anti-reform stance.
The broadcast and digital ad buy in Iowa features King’s comments from an interview with Breitbart News saying he would oppose efforts to allow illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, so-called DREAMers, to gain permanent residency by joining the military. “As soon as they raise their hand and say ‘I’m unlawfully present in the United States,’ we’re not going to take your oath into the military, but we’re going to take your deposition and we have a bus for you to Tijuana,” King said.
“Instead of supporting our military, Steve King, a Republican member of Congress, insults the brave soldiers who are immigrants and those who would proudly serve,” the ad says. “Steve King’s attacks on American soldiers and the military is wrong.”
“Rep. Steve King and his anti-immigrant allies want to deport over 11 million people, and by claiming ‘I think [Congress] blows up’ if a military DREAMer provision is even considered, he demonstrates that they’re willing to use threats over Congressional procedure to block every conceivable path to even the least controversial aspects of immigration reform,” said Todd Schulte, the executive director of Fwd.us, which is backed by many Silicon Valley executives. “He compares allowing DREAMers willing to lay their lives on the line for our country to earn citizenship to giving out candy. He says those who stand up and volunteer to serve should be put on a bus and deported to Tijuana. King’s comments are an insult to immigrants as well as to the commitment and sacrifices that U.S. service members and veterans make every day. It’s just plain wrong that Steve King’s fear-mongering voice is one of those dominating the immigration debate.”
A second ad features Alejandro Morales, who the group said has lived in Chicago since he was only seven months old but can’t enlist because of his undocumented status
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7U5yROsRv-c
http://time.com/67944/zuckerberg-imm...ts-steve-king/
Zuckerberg pushes amnesty via Pentagon bill
3:22 PM 04/18/2014
Neil Munro
The Daily Caller
http://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-cont...4744826320.jpg
Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is funding two new TV ads intended to covertly restart the stalled push for an dramatic immigration increase.
One of the well-produced TV ads targets GOP Rep. Steve King, and both ads promote the recruitment of illegal immigrants into the U.S. military.
The ads are also intended to scare off other GOP and Democratic legislators who want U.S. immigration law to help American families and workers, not to help U.S-based employers and immigrants, said a Hill staffer.
“Open borders business groups believe that House members who support a pro-American immigration policy are the primary obstacle to their ability to hire more cheap labor,” he said. “It is clear they’re gong to use their money in this and coming cycles to try to shove these members out of the party.”
Those leaders, however, such as GOP Rep. Mo Brooks and Sen. Jeff Sessions, are popular in their districts, partly because most voters share their skepticism towards any increased inflow in immigration or guest workers.
Business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and major donors, are jumping into GOP’s primary battles. For example, in North Carolina, they’re supporting state Rep. Thom Tillls in the GOP’s Senate nomination battle in North Carolina, and running adds against Rep. Walter Jones, who is facing a primary fight with a business-backed Republican.
Business and progressive groups want to raise the current annual inflow of 1 million immigrants and 650,000 non-agricultural guest-workers. Additional workers reduce labor costs, increase consumption, and tend to vote Democratic if they become citizens. Zuckerberg and other high-tech leaders want to increase the hiring of low-wage foreign professionals, in place of the 800,000 Americans who graduate each year with high-tech university degrees.
The new ads are produced by the Zuckerberg-founded FWD.US group, whose membership includes billionaires and millionaires from the information-technology and venture-capital sectors. The group has hired former top GOP and Democratic staffers to target amnesty opponents.
The new ads are “the treachery coming from the highest levels of the GOP establishment,” according Dan Horowitz, the policy director for the Madison Project, which opposes a major amnesty. Zuckerberg’s former GOP aides are “supporting Obama’s prized initiative for his second term – mass amnesty for illegals and a permanent Democrat majority,” said Horowitz.
One of Zuckerberg’s new ads features an illegal immigrant who enrolled in the U.S. Marine Corp’s high-school organization, and who has not been allowed by the administration to join the military.
A second ad highlights several images of apparent immigrants who have enlisted and urges viewers to call King’s office to say that “his hateful comments weaken our military.”
The ads exploit King’s blunt April 2 statement that illegal immigrants who apply to join the U.S. military should be sent home. “As soon as they raise their hand and say ‘I’m unlawfully present in the United States,’ we’re not going to take your oath into the military, but we’re going to take your deposition and we have a bus for you to Tijuana,” King said.
“Instead of supporting our military, Steve King, a Republican member of Congress, insults the brave soldiers who are immigrants and those who would proudly serve,” the ad claims.
Top Democratic leaders also quickly slammed King for his comments.
Both new ads boost an draft amendment to the 2015 defense bill that would allow Hill Democrats another chance to win a big immigration increase this year.
The Secretary of Defense already has the legal authority to accept illegal immigrants on a case-by-case basis, but the amendment would ease recruitment of foreigners in place of Americans.
The amendment is dubbed the ENLIST Act, and is being sponsored by GOP Rep. Jeff Denham, who represents a farm district in California. Agricultural employers are strong backers of immigration increases, because they prefer to hire cheap migrant workers instead of investing in new crop-picking machinery.
If GOP leaders allow the amendment to be added to the bill, and then passed by the full House, it would allow leaders in the Senate and House to include a large immigration rewrite in the must-pass defense bill.
That immigration rewrite could consist of a small amnesty for younger illegals, or a copy of the Senate’s June 2013 bill, which would triple the inflow of legal immigrants and guest workers to 40 million over the next decade. That huge inflow is roughly equal to the number of Americans youths who will join the workforce by 2024 in search of decent jobs.
For the moment, the amendment has been blocked by opposition from the American Legion. On Friday, President Barack Obama met with the head of the American Legion.
Many aspects of the Senate bill — especially the increased inflow of guest-workers — are unpopular among GOP supporters and swing voters, whom the party needs to vote in November. However, the bill is popular among progressives and wealthy voters.
The public is strongly opposed to increased immigration, partly because wages are at a 63-year record low share of annual income, profits are at a 85-year record high of annual income, and the middle-class is shrinking fast. Last June, the CBO reported that the Senate bill would shift even more of the nation’s annual income away from wages earners and toward investors.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/18/zu...pentagon-bill/
Steve King: Facebook Co-Founder Attacking Me for Telling Truth About Amnesty
by Tony Lee 19 Apr 2014, 8:31 AM PDT
breitbart.com
http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver...ve-king-AP.jpg
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is targeting him specifically with attack ads because he is one of the few in Congress who will stand up against and tell the truth about amnesty.
As Breitbart News reported, Zuckerberg's FWD.us group that has spent millions to lobby for amnesty, specifically for high-tech visas that would lower the wages of American workers, unleashed two attack ads against King on Friday that slammed him for his "hateful comments" about DREAMers who want citizenship for their military service.
"Our Nation’s military is full of dedicated men and women and to disrespect them by rewarding illegal aliens with citizenship is an insult," King said on Friday.
Breitbart News first reported an "effort by Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) to insert the immigration proposal into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)," which those like King called out and opposed.
“I am under attack by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg because I am one of the few who will stand up and tell the truth about amnesty,” King said. “He wants amnesty because it would benefit his multi-billion dollar corporation, but I’m fighting to preserve the Rule of Law. Why would we reward people for breaking our laws?"
King stated that "rewarding law breakers produces more law breakers" and asked "everyone who agrees that illegal immigrants should not be rewarded for having broken the law stand with me."
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...-About-Amnesty
King targeted in Zuckerberg immigration reform ad
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
By Russ Mitchell, Northwest Iowa Publishing
http://www.spencerdailyreporter.com/.../2068229-L.jpg
U.S. Rep. Steve King responds to questions during an interview Tuesday in Spirit Lake.
(Photo by Brandon Hurley)
SPIRIT LAKE -- A pro-immigration reform group backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is set to air campaign ads targeting U.S. Rep. Steve King.
The Washington Examiner and Time.com say the pro-reform group FWD.us will air ads criticizing the 4th District Congressmen for his opposition to the ENLIST Act. The bill would allow immigrants to serve in the military in exchange for citizenship. The FWD.us ad accused King of hateful comments that will weaken the military. King responded to the FWD.us campaign during an interview Tuesday in Spirit Lake.
"I don't think you reward people for breaking the law," King said. "That's why I stand against this. And, furthermore, we're downsizing our military dramatically -- I don't agree with that. (Secretary of Defense) Chuck Hagel announced that, about three days before Putin invaded Crimea, but we have a dramatic downgrade of our military. It's hard to stay in the military if you're in and it's harder to get into the military because of the downgrade. So, we're acting like somehow we have to have mercenaries in our military -- because somehow we couldn't fill the ranks of an adequate military with Americans or legal immigrants that are, of course, by definition also Americans. It's wrong-headed thinking."
He also questioned motives behind the Facebook CEO's pro-immigration reform stance during the Spirit Lake stop.
"Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, the multi-billionaire, I don't know how many billions he's worth, but he's got plenty of money to buy all of the media in Iowa and have a lot left over," King said. "He could buy all of the media in Iowa between now and the election and not even notice it coming out of his account. That's how rich this man is. Most people would be flattered if a billionaire paid attention to you. I don't know that I'm flattered, but here is how this looks to me: Mark Zuckerberg's involvement has gone on now for some time. He's been involved with the immigration issue for a couple of years that I can think of -- probably longer than that before I started to pay attention."
In 2013, King said Zuckerberg tried to get legislation through Congress to ease visa restrictions for immigrants with an information technology background.
"He wants cheap labor from foreign countries to come in and work in his tech industry," King said. "We have a lot of people who have degrees in information technology that have been hired over, into other fields, because they're not paying enough in the information technology arena. So, it looks like Zuckerberg's motivation is: He wants a lot of cheap labor that are IT people. And, he's a Democrat. He was a strong supporter of Barack Obama in the last two elections and they put a lot of money into that, as did people like Bill Gates, George Soros and the Google people. They have decided to make common cause with the open borders, pro-amnesty people. Zuckerberg has no interest in a lot of cheap farm labor to come into the United States or cheap unskilled labor to come into the United States. He has an interest in technical people."
King said he supports legal immigration, but "I'm not for opening our borders for all of the people who might want to come to America."
"That's the fight we're in," he continued. "He's decided to target me and the reason is, because I'm the guy standing in the way and I'm going to stand there. I think Iowans are going to know they're not going to have their policies bought and paid for by a multi-billionaire who has an agenda to fill his pocket with more money."
King also talked about the political atmosphere at the Capitol during an election year. The congressman said most agendas are harder to accomplish when November elections loom.
"It depends on the issue," he said. "Sometimes things can get done in a lame duck session and only in a lame duck session. But the best opportunity to do the right thing is shortly after a new election when a new Congress is seated."
http://www.spencerdailyreporter.com/story/2073493.html
U.S. Rep. Steve King Responds To Mark Zuckerberg PAC's Immigration Ads
By Will Hagle, Tue, April 29, 2014
opposingviews.com
http://img.opposingviews.com/sites/d.../SteveKing.jpg
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, created the political action committee FWD.us last year along with a host of prominent members of the tech community.
The PAC has made immigration reform a priority since its launch, and it has been aggressive in its campaign thus far. The PAC ran ads in Iowa earlier this month attacking U.S. Representative Steve King for his harsh stance on immigration.
King has since responded to the ads by directly criticizing Zuckerberg in a fundraising email sent to supporters.
“We are under attack by liberal billionaire Mark Zuckerberg -- and he chose to begin his attacks on Good Friday of all days! The founder of Facebook is determined to eliminate anyone who disagrees with his plan for amnesty for illegal immigrants -- and he’s starting with me. Let’s tell Zuckerberg it’s time to go back to San Francisco with his pal Nancy Pelosi -- a place where radical liberalism runs wild. We need to tell him we will not yield to a progressive amnesty agenda,” the e-mail reads, according to the Huffington Post.
Aside from the back-and-forth arguments between King and Zuckerberg, FWD.us is likely to have unforeseeable yet significant consequences on both the tech and political world. The involvement of wealthy, powerful tech companies in politics raises several ethical questions for all those involved, as Anil Dash notes in this informative article.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/polit...mmigration-ads
