Mark Zuckerberg says young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents should be allowed to remain in the country, and criticized those who want to remove them as being motivated by politics.
The remarks were the Facebook founder's most pointed yet in support of minors who have been shielded from deportation under former President Obama's DACA program, for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
"No one should try to deport them just to make a political point, and the leaders threatening to take away their protections need to do the right thing," Zuckerberg wrote in an Aug. 25 Facebook post.
"DACA has allowed 800,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents to live, work and contribute to this country," he wrote in the post, which had been been "Liked" or otherwise reacted to by 36,000 people as of Sunday afternoon.
The comments put Zuckerberg in the middle of a contentious political battle that could soon be headed to court.
President Trump could be poised to end the program after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed it with senior White House officials last Thursday, Reuters reported.
Last month, a group of attorneys general from 10 states sent a letter to Trump, threatening to sue if he continued DACA, which Obama created by executive order in 2012.
Zuckerberg's post pointed to a pro-DACA opinion piece written last week by Donald Graham, chairman of Graham Holdings Company and former publisher of the Washington Post, whom Zuckerberg referred to as "my friend."
The Washington Post, now owned by Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, has come under intense criticism from Trump.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was among those officials who signed the letter urging Trump to scrap the DACA program.
In January, Zuckerberg wrote a post soon after President Trump signed executive orders banning the admission of immigrants from a group of countries in the Middle East.
That earlier post, which touted Zuckerberg's immigrant roots, read:
"We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat. Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation. We should also keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help. That's who we are," Zuckerberg said then.