Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has long since come out in favor of immigration reform. In June, he unveiled a pro-immigration reform ad entitled "Emma" and put together by FWD.us, the lobbying group largely funded by Zuckerberg which has pushed for comprehensive changes to the nation's immigration system to allow more high-skilled foreign workers. On August 5, he plans to give his first speech on the issue at an arts center in San Francisco during the premiere of a documentary about journalist and immigrant activist Jose Antonio Vargas. Click on the video below to watch the trailer of "Documented".

"It's a dramatic move, and it tells you we're at a critical moment in this issue - it's all hands on deck," Vargas, 32, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Vargas, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist, rocketed into public consciousness and the immigration reform debate in 2011 when he published a piece in the New York Times Magazine revealing that he does not reside in the United States legally.

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His film details his struggles as an undocumented immigrant who is separated from his mother, who remains in the Philippines, where Vargas was born. "Documented" also includes stories of other DREAMers - so named because they would've qualified for legal status under the moribund 2010 Dream Act, which would've extended a path to citizenship to minors who graduated from high school and attended college or served in the military.

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FWD.us, Zuckerberg's political action group, has won funding from many of Silicon Valley's most powerful executives, including Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and investor John Doerr, according to the Hill. Click the link below to watch their pro-reform ad "Emma'.

Vargas is already well acquainted with the Facebook CEO. In 2010 Vargas profiled him for the New Yorker. That article notes how unlikely of a candidate Zuckerberg is to make speeches of the sort expect at the premiere:

"Despite his goal of global openness, however, Zuckerberg remains a wary and private person," the article says. "He doesn't like to speak to the press, and he does so rarely. He also doesn't seem to enjoy the public appearances that are increasingly requested of him. Backstage at an event at the Computer History Museum, in Silicon Valley, this summer, one of his interlocutors turned to Zuckerberg, minutes before they were to appear onstage, and said, 'You don't like doing these kinds of events very much, do you?' Zuckerberg replied with a terse 'No,' then took a sip from his water bottle and looked off into the distance."

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The film's premiere is invitation-only and sponsored by Vargas' immigration rights advocacy group Define American in addition to FWD.us. The event is expect to attract a diverse array of guests, including Silicon Valley technology royalty, dozens of Asian and Latino DREAMers, and Mexican day laborers from the South Bay, according to the Chronicle.

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