Mark Zuckerberg defends Dreamers from Trump and urges people to pressure Congress over DACA

He says he is optimistic that Congress will act, but that voters need make their voices heard

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants all of his followers on the social media site to put down the keyboard and make a quick phone call to Congress.

In a post to his timeline, Mr Zuckerburg urged his followers to ring up their representatives to urge them to stand up to protect so-called Dreamers in the United States.

“Every day that Congress doesn't act more [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipients are losing their status,” Mr Zuckerberg began his note.”Dreamers are members of our communities, and there are 800,000 living in fear with no ability to plan for the future.”

President Donald Trump announced last year that his administration would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last year, and punted responsibility to Congress to find a legislative buoy for the hundreds of thousands of young people who could face deportation if an immigration fix isn’t found.

Congress is currently considering proposals to help the DACA recipients as a part of a spending bill that is necessary to keep the government funded past this week, though it is far from certain that DACA provisions will be included.

The program, which was started by Mr Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, has allowed young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children to apply for temporary legal status and begin to work. The program was initiated as a way to help those immigrants come out of the shadows, and has led many to pursue higher education, and invest in their futures.

Mr Zuckerberg, whose company spends considerable sums lobbying on immigration issues — especially in favor of high tech immigrant visas — said that he feels optimistic that something will ultimately end up working out.

“I'm optimistic this will get solved. There's been some good bipartisan momentum on legislation recently. From my conversations with leaders in Congress, I believe they want to fix this, but we need to keep the pressure on so they know we'll hold them accountable,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote in the Facebook post. “I've been calling members of Congress and you can help by calling your Congressman or Congresswoman too right now.”