Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shared his views on civil rights issues.
In an exclusive interview with ABC's "This Week", Zuckerberg criticized the current U.S. immigration system and said that it was "one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time."
"When you meet these children who are really talented, and they've grown up in America and they really don't know any other country besides that, but they don't have the opportunities that ... we all enjoy, it's really heartbreaking - right? That seems like it's one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time," said Zuckerberg.
The 29-year old founder and CEO of Facebook has recently taken an active interest in calling for immigration reform. The interviewer, David Wright, challenged Zuckerberg and hinted that many Americans would disagree that providing a means of citizenship to over 11 million people who live in the U.S. illegally would constitute as a civil rights issue.
"There are a lot of misconceptions about that ... a lot of them came here because they just want to work. They want to help out their families and they want to contribute," said Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg co-founded FWD.us this spring, which is an immigration reform advocacy group. The group aims "to promote policies to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy" per its website.
FWD.us also perseveres to garner support for issuing more H-1B visas, securing borders and the path to citizenship.
In the interview, Zuckerberg also outlined the economic weightage reform had.
"The future of our economy is a knowledge economy. And that means that getting the most talented people into this country is the most important thing that we can do to make sure that the companies of tomorrow are founded here," he said.
While an immigration deal in Congress seems like a long shot, Zuckerberg is optimistic about the future
"I'm fundamentally an optimistic person, as an entrepreneur," he said. "The vast majority of Americans want this to happen."
