Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to build a new kind of economy and he is starting by first tackling a political issue, of which he has a very vested interest: Immigration reform.
Zuckerberg announced Thursday the tech community's political organization focused on immigration reform in the U.S. The group is called FWD.us and is the tech industry's latest push to keep highly skilled workers in the country and legal.
(Read More: Will Tech Titans' PAC Harm Silicon Valley's Brand?)
A number of high-profile tech leaders are backing the organization, including Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.
The group will focus on building what Zuckerberg calls the "knowledge economy," which is a new kind of economy that will help keep the U.S. competitive in the global market.
The new group is reportedly wasting no time in tackling its key challenge, immigration. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on immigration on April 17, and FWD.us is expected to throw its backing behind the Gang of Eight legislation, which consists of a pathway to citizenship, guest worker programs, and tougher border security, according to a TechCrunch report.
(Read More: Why Immigration Reform May Happen This Year )
In an op-ed piece for the Washington Post, Zuckerberg compared the last century's economy to the present economy. He said the economy of the past was based on natural resources, industrial machines, and manual labor, and was heavily controlled by companies.
Today's economy, though, is different because it is "primarily based on knowledge and ideas— resources that are renewable and available to everyone," he wrote.
(Read More: How Lack of Immigration Reform Harms Startups, US Economy )
"This can change everything. In a knowledge economy, the most important resources are the talented people we educate and attract to our country. A knowledge economy can scale further, create better jobs, and provide a higher quality of living for everyone in our nation," he said. "To lead the world in this new economy, we need the most talented and hardest-working people. We need to train and attract the best."
—By CNBC's Cadie Thompson
