Facebook fostering human tragedy at American border?

Are corporatist purveyors of blanket Amnesty and their televised ads behind the lure for the tens of thousands of Central America minors now flooding the American border?

Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg was lightning quick off the mark when the amnesty battle claimed big fish House Majority leader Eric Cantor, who went down to humiliating defeat to citizen candidate David Brat Tuesday night, with a round of new ads--launched the same night. “An immigration advocacy group backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg launched a new cable advertising campaign Tuesday aimed at pressuring House Republicans in what is likely the last window for an immigration overhaul this year.” (Politico, June 10, 2014) “The national cable TV buy includes two ads from the group, FWD.us, and a spokeswoman said the combined spending for the two ads will be about $250,000.” Incredibly, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has already stepped forward to fill the gap left by Cantor. Call it ‘Hasta la Visa Mark Zuckerberg style’ for Eric Cantor and maybe you, too, Senator Paul. For the last year and a half Zuckerberg has been sending out a siren call for increasing the number of high-tech visas on the basis there is a crucial shortage of qualified computer engineers on American soil.

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So how does calling for an increase in the number of high-tech visas play into the tsunami of unaccompanied by adult children now nesting down in Nogales, Arizona, and in other reopened American military bases? Zuckerberg ads leave the impression that young illegals are no longer illegal in America which welcomes the youth of third world countries with wide open arms. These ads, like the ones that preceded them send a tempting message that even U.S. Republicans are in line to open the floodgates on blanket amnesty; that crossing the border no longer gets you busted. If you were a desperate mother in Guatemala struggling to keep hungry children fed, and saw or heard of ads with a message that you can send your kids to America, how long would it take to get them packed and on the way? Corporatist purveyors of blanket Amnesty have already portrayed “dreamers” already in the U.S. as good for America and its flagging economy. By highlighting the stories of the tech savvy “dreamers” with the over romanticized struggles they face because of their illegal status, the group aims to convince fence-sitting House Republicans that giving these young immigrants an avenue toward citizenship is good for the economy, and even in alignment with the country’s history. (The Hill, Nov. 21, 2013) “As any tech company can tell you, there is a major shortage of engineers in the U.S., particularly computer programmers.” (Mark Zuckerberg, Forbes, Feb. 26, 2013) “Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Forward.us, which was formed to lobby Congress to pass amnesty legislation, sent a letter signed by more than 100 Chicago high-tech executives to the Illinois GOP congressional delegation calling for immigration reform legislation that would result in an increase in the number of high-tech visas.” (Breitbart , April 1, 2014) Yet, there is no empirical evidence to support the notion that America even has a shortage of high-tech American workers, but that has not stopped the high-tech lobby from insisting on legislation, according to Breitbart. The Zuckerberg ads go on to spawn word of mouth, the most effective kind of advertising of them all--particularly if you’re a poor immigrant with hungry children. Adding to the confusion is a group of like-minded chambers of commerce, who have banded to form the Business For Skilled Worker Immigration, which is agitating for a larger number of H-1B visas. “Yesterday the Deputy Secretary of Labor, Chris Lu, also made increasing the number of skilled immigrant workers a goal.” (Red State, May 21, 2014) “We also need to fix our broken immigration system to encourage more highly educated foreign-born workers to come to the United States. If we are to compete in a global economy, we must continue to attract and retain the world’s brightest minds. Too many foreign students--many from Asian countries come to the United States to further their education but most return home when they cannot obtain a green card or immigrant visa. As part of President Obama’s immigration reforms, he has called for “stapling green cards” to the diplomas of foreign graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields.” But it is not the skilled immigrant workers that are overwhelming the borders and dumping a tsunami of unaccompanied minors on America. Meanwhile, an America without borders could be the legacy left by self-serving corporatists seeking to keep their enterprises thriving at any cost.