Bezos donates $33 million for ‘dreamers’ scholarship program

by Max Greenwood - 01/12/18 9:14 AM ET

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is donating $33 million to a scholarship program for certain young immigrants, as lawmakers struggle to strike a deal for codifying legal protections for the immigrants, known as “Dreamers.”

Bezos and his wife MacKenzie will donate the money to TheDream.US, a fund that awards college scholarships to Dreamers – immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

The $33 million donation is the largest contribution to the program, which was established in 2014 by Donald Graham, the former publisher of The Washington Post. Bezos bought the newspaper in 2013.

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The money will fund 1,000 college scholarships, TheDream.US said in a statement.

In the statement, Bezos noted that his father came to the U.S. from Cuba when he was 16, and that he wanted to help “today’s Dreamers” with the donation to the scholarship program.

Lawmakers are working on a plan to codify protections granted by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program into law, after President Trump moved last fall to rescind the program.

But negotiations on such a deal are on the rocks after Trump and some congressional Republicans rejected a bipartisan proposal to enshrine DACA’s protections into law while increasing border security.