Zuckerberg-backed group may aim at Trump in 2016 push

by David McCabe - 12/01/15 8:40 PM ET

An immigration reform advocacy group backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will make a push for the 2016 elections, some of it seemingly directed at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Politico reported Tuesday.

The group Fwd.us will spend as much as $10 million on advertisements and research aimed at getting an immigration reform package passed in 2017. The group’s field operation will also reportedly expand.

{mosads}Though much of the focus of the current immigration debate is on Trump — who has called for deporting all immigrants who are in the country without authorization — an official with the group said multiple candidates had worrisome stances on the issue.

“From a policy situation if we nominate any of those people we are going to lose,” campaign manager Rob Jesmer told Politico. “No two ways about it.”

The group’s polling found that a majority of voters would prefer a candidate who does not support the kind of mass deportation Trump has proposed, according to Politico.

Funded by Zuckerberg and other boldfaced names from Silicon Valley, the group launched to great fanfare in 2013. But proposed immigration reform measures faltered in Congress. There were also those on the left who criticized the group for running ads boasting of the conservative bona fides of lawmakers who backed immigration reform.

Tags Donald Trump FWD.us Mark Zuckerberg