ImmigrationHigh-tech industry-backed immigration reform advocacy group mulls strategy

FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, has spent millions of dollars on advertising and events to persuade members of Congress to revamp the country’s immigration policy, but despite having the capital, connections, and star power, the tech industry-based group is now forced to reorganize its strategies in the midst of a polarizing immigration debate.

“In Silicon Valley, if you don’t like the taxi industry, you start Uber, you go around it,” said FWD.us president Joe Green, who helped establish the group alongside Zuckerberg, his former Harvard roommate. “With politics you have to work through it, and doing that can be very challenging.”

Politico reports that FWD.us surpassed its $50 million fundraising goal and still has almost $25 million in funds. FWD.us’s registered lobbying efforts total $780,000, and much of the money went to media buys, primarily in Republican districts, defending conservatives who could become favorable to immigration reform when the bill came due for passing in Congress. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings were some of many tech executives who contributed to the group. Several political power players support FWD.us, including its executive director Todd Schulte, the former chief of staff at Priorities USA, a super PAC which supported President Barack Obama. FWD.us campaign manager, Rob Jesmer, worked as the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

“FWD.us is the most prominent, most active biggest spending group in recent years to come out in favor of immigration reform,” said Elizabeth Wilner of Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. Yet, its spending, she noted, remains “paltry” compared with groups connected to the highly financially-backed causes of health care and energy.

Wilner compared the group to a grass-roots effort launched by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg which intended, but is yet to unite, voters around gun control. “You can look at really influential people in business thinking they can put names and money behind something and believe it will pass,” she said, “but they’re basically running into the brick wall of Washington and polarization.”

Some analysts familiar with FWD.us cite fault in the group’s strategy to support conservative candidates like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who, although supportive the Senate’s immigration reform bill, also supports the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and opposition to Obamacare. Another FWD.us-backed ad praised Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska), an immigration reform supporter, for backing oil drilling in the Arctic. In response, liberal groups pulled their ads from Facebook, while Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk and David Sacks, chief executive of social networking company Yammer, cut ties.

“My sense is they (FWD.us) wanted to be really helpful, but they didn’t quite know how to be really helpful,” said Representative John Yarmuth (D-Kentucky), who participated in House reform efforts. “I don’t think they really know how to wage this kind of battle.”

As more Republican lawmakers shift toward an anti-immigration reform policy, FWD.us and other immigration advocacy groups are reorganizing. FWD.us has been praised for its untraditional tactics and ability to raise funds. “They have the staying power, the willingness to work, the ability and willingness to focus on the issue like a laser and not get confused and sidetracked by partisan issues. To me, they have been, frankly, a breath of fresh air,” said Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida), a supporter of immigration reform.

Today, Fwd.us has no intention of scaling back its mission. “We’ve managed to tread the difficult line of being trusted on both sides and doing work that is fundamentally political on both sides,” Green said. “We are down but we are certainly not out.”