Facebook founder speaks out for Filipino immigrant friend

MANILA, Philippines - Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg spoke out publicly in favor of immigration reform, echoing an advocacy of his Filipino friend, journalist Jose Antonio Vargas.

Appearing at the debut screening of Vargas' autobiographical documentary "Documented" on Tuesday, Zuckerberg appealed to the American government to grant immigrants citizenship.

"This is something that we believe is really important for the future of our country — and for us to do what's right," Zuckerberg told several hundred attendees, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Pulitzer-prize winning Vargas first met Zuckerberg in 2010 when he interviewed him for a profile "The face of Facebook: Zuckerburg opens up" published in The New Yorker.

Zuckerberg and his former Harvard University roommate Joe Green recently founded the organization Fwd.us to advocate for a pathway to citizenship for nearly 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. But Monday was the first time Zuckerberg spoke about the issue in public.

"No matter where they were born, (these students) are going to be tomorrow's entrepreneurs and people creating jobs in this country," he told the audience.

"These are issues that don't just touch our part of the industry, but really touch a whole country," Zuckerberg added.

The Facebook Inc. founder said he first became aware of the need to change the immigration system while volunteering to teach a class on entrepreneurship at a Menlo Park school. Many of the students had been brought into the U.S. illegally.

Vargas, meanwhile, founded Define American, a non-profit organization aiming to elevate dialogue on what he calls the "broken immigration system."

He was on the cover of Time Magazine in June 2012 where he also wrote its cover piece on undocumented immigrants residing in the US.

The article began with Vargas responding to the question, "Why haven't you gotten deported?"

That’s usually the first thing people ask me when they learn I’m an undocumented immigrant or, put more rudely, an “illegal." Some ask it with anger or frustration, others with genuine bafflement. At a restaurant in Birmingham, not far from the University of Alabama, an inebriated young white man challenged me: “You got your papers?" I told him I didn’t. “Well, you should get your ass home, then." In California, a middle-aged white woman threw up her arms and wanted to know: “Why hasn’t Obama dealt with you?" At least once a day, I get that question, or a variation of it, via e-mail, tweet or Facebook message. Why, indeed, am I still here? - with Associated Press