Mark Zuckerberg’s nonprofit cuts ties with the immigration advocacy group he co-founded

Behold Mark Zuckerberg: man of precept. Witness the Meta CEO’s dedication to probably the most high-minded of causes: “currying favor with whoever’s in cost.” In 2013, when Barack Obama was president, Zuckerberg co-founded FWD.us, a pro-immigration advocacy group. For years, he vocally supported offering paths to citizenship for “probably the most proficient and hardest-working individuals, irrespective of the place they had been born.” Now, in 2025, with Donald Trump again in energy and pushing draconian immigration insurance policies, Zuckerberg’s philanthropy group has formally lower ties with the group. Who says Large Tech executives do not stand for something?

On Friday, Bloomberg reported on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) severing its ties with FWD.us. Zuckerberg’s group offered no funding to the advocacy group for the primary time this yr. As much as that time, over half of the roughly $400 million donated to the nonprofit since 2013 had come from CZI.

As well as, CZI’s chief of workers, Jordan Fox, resigned from the FWD.us board. Nobody else at CZI will fill the vacant slot, one other first for the pro-immigration and justice reform advocacy group.

In an announcement to Engadget, a spokesperson for CZI mentioned the change had been within the works for a number of years. “Practically 5 years in the past, we shared that we had been specializing in our core work in science, training, and supporting our native communities,” the spokesperson mentioned. “As a part of that transition, we dedicated foundational funding to FWD.us to proceed their bipartisan work. We have now fulfilled that monetary dedication and wound down our social advocacy funding.” She added that the couple’s Biohub initiative is at the moment their “major philanthropy.”

In late 2024, Zuckerberg met with Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who reacts to brown-skinned people being sent to foreign gulags the best way my canine responds to a juicy steak. Amongst different subjects in the course of the alternate, Miller reportedly questioned Zuckerberg’s ties to FWD.us.

Apparently, his phrases resonated with Zuckerberg’s ideas. In January, earlier than Trump was sworn in for his second time period, Meta unleashed an overhaul that reads like a Miller wishlist. The corporate ended its variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) applications. That very same month, it ditched third-party fact-checkers, calling them “too politically biased.” It additionally modified its insurance policies to permit for “insulting language” on subjects of immigration and LGBTQ+ points. The corporate even added Trump backer Dana White to its board.

It suits a broader sample of Big Tech bending the knee to Trump.

“We’re in the course of a fairly quickly altering coverage and regulatory panorama that views any coverage which may benefit anyone group of individuals over one other as one thing that’s illegal,” Zuckerberg told the New York Occasions in January. “Due to that, we and each different establishment on the market are going to wish to regulate.”

“We now have a US administration that’s pleased with our main corporations, prioritizes American know-how profitable and that can defend our values and pursuits overseas,” Zuckerberg said in a January investor name. “I’m optimistic in regards to the progress and innovation that this could unlock, so that is going to be an enormous yr.”

What a big year certainly.

Now witness the contrasting phrases of considered one of Zuckerberg’s chief rivals in Silicon Valley. “Once you meet these [immigrant] kids who’re actually proficient, they usually’ve grown up in America, they usually actually do not know another nation moreover that, however they do not have the alternatives that all of us take pleasure in, it is actually heartbreaking, proper?” the tech government mentioned. “That looks as if it is one of many greatest civil rights problems with our time.”

That “rival,” in fact, was Obama-era Mark Zuckerberg in 2013.

Regardless of the funding setback, due to our principled hero, FWD.us will press ahead. “We’re grateful to our donors, previous and current, and so grateful to the various new donors who’ve stepped up up to now few years — and significantly the inflow of latest supporters we have now seen this yr,” FWD.us President Todd Schulte mentioned in an announcement. “This enables us to struggle for immigrants below assault at present and to construct a greater strategy to immigration and prison justice reform for a lot of, a few years to return.”

Replace, December 19, 2025, 1:19PM PT: This story was up to date to incorporate an announcement from a spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.