Senator Blasts Zuckerberg, FWD.us in Speech

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, had some strong words for Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and FWD.us, the immigration-centric political-action committee spearheaded by Zuckerberg, in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday night, published by National Review. Sessions said during the speech: One of the groups that has joined the chorus of special interests demanding executive action on immigration is FWD.us, run by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He just turned 30, and I understand he is worth about $30 billion. Mr. Zuckerberg has been very busy recently. One of his fellow billionaires, Mr. Carlos Slim -- maybe the world’s richest man -- invited Mr. Zuckerberg down to Mexico City to give a speech. What did Mr. Zuckerberg promote in his speech? Well, this is a report of it. I guess I will first note that young Mr. Zuckerberg maybe doesn’t know there is a deep American tradition -- a tradition in most developed nations -- that you don’t go to a foreign capital to criticize your own government. I suppose he doesn’t know about that. They probably didn’t teach him about that when he was at one of the elite schools he attended. This is what he said in Mexico City: “We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants. And it’s a policy unfit for today’s world.” Well, the “masters of the universe” are very fond of open borders as long as these open borders don’t extend to their gated compounds and fenced-off estates. I have another article from late last fall that was printed in Business Insider about Mr. Zuckerberg’s actions. The headline is, “Mark Zuckerberg Just Spent More than $30 Million Buying 4 Neighboring Houses for Privacy.” The article says: Mark Zuckerberg just made an unusual purchase. Well, four purchases. Facebook’s billionaire founder bought four homes surrounding his current home near Palo Alto, Mercury News reports. The houses cost him more than $30 million, including one 2,600-square-foot home that cost $14 million. (His own home is twice as large at 5,000 square-feet and cost half as much.) Larry Page made a similar move a few years ago so he could build a 6,000-square-foot mansion. But Zuckerberg’s reason is different. He doesn’t want to live in excess, he just wants a little privacy. That is a world the average American doesn’t live in. So Mr. Zuckerberg -- who has become the top spokesman for expanding the admission of foreign workers -- championed the Senate immigration bill for which all of our Democratic colleagues voted. One of the things the bill did was double the supply of low-wage foreign workers brought into the United States for companies such as Facebook. Sessions added later in his speech: So I would pose a question to Mr. Zuckerberg. I read in the news that Facebook is now worth more than $200 billion. Is that not enough money to hire American workers for a change? Your company now employs roughly 7,000 people. Let’s say you want to expand your work force 10 percent, or hire another 700 workers. Are you claiming you can’t find 700 Americans who would take these jobs if you paid a good wage and decent benefits? Let me just say one more thing: Facebook has 7,000 workers. Microsoft just laid off 18,000. Why doesn’t Mr. Zuckerberg call his friend Mr. Gates and say: “Look, I have to hire a few hundred people; do you have any résumés you can send over here? Maybe I will not have to take somebody from a foreign country for a job an unemployed U.S. citizen might take.” Readers: What did you think of Sessions’ remarks?

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Senator Blasts Zuckerberg, FWD.us in Speech

David Cohen

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David Cohen