#SelfiesForReform: FWD.us pushes for immigration reform with new campaign

It is synonymous with narcissism and vapidity but Mark Zuckerberg hopes to turn the selfie into a tool for immigration reform.

The Facebook founder's political advocacy group, FWD.us, has launched an app to let celebrities, millennials and others lobby Congress with self-portraits and messages in favour of reform.

The actor Jared Leto and the model Alessandra Ambrosio are among those who have tweeted selfies, using the hashtag #Selfies4Reform, which FWD.us will print and mail as postcards to congressional representatives.

The group said in a statement it wanted to make advocacy “fun and engaging” by letting people show support for immigration reform “in one of the most popular ways in the digital age”.

The group's president, Joe Green, said in a blog post the campaign could make a difference. “We’ve spoken to staff on Capitol Hill and even members of Congress about it, and they said a selfie postcard would definitely stand out. Every Congressional office receives letters, but how many receive selfie postcards from constituents?”

Recent recruits include California's governor Jerry Brown and the actor Chris Tucker, as well as a stream of non-famous, mostly young people, all appealing for an end to a Washington stalemate which both President Barack Obama and John Boehner, the Republican House speaker, have blamed on House Republicans.

“We must make #immigration reform a reality. My #selfie for a cause,” said a typical tweet from a Leto follower.

Some sceptics in the technology sector scorned the initiative, calling it another misstep by an advocacy group which has triggered controversy since Zuckerberg launched it last year with backing from Silicon Valley.

"This letter-writing campaign probably won't accomplish very much. But it'll make FWD.us feel like it's more than a cynical lobbying machine,” said Valleywag.

The site Pando Daily was equally blunt. “All FWD.us is doing is wasting a few trees and making young people feel like they’ve made a real difference even though all they did was take yet another picture of their own goddamn faces.”

The conservative site Breitbart accused the campaign of promoting amnesty for illegal immigrants in order to open the nation's doors to foreign high-tech workers who would work for cheap wages.

Immigrant advocacy groups, in contrast, welcomed the campaign as a useful if limited contribution. “I don’t see how something like this could hurt,” said Matt Adams, of the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Projects. “If nothing else, it again helps to try to expand the image of who and what comprehensive immigration reform covers.”

A Washington DC-based group, which declined to be named, said the effort to lobby congress could only benefit if a young demographic made its voice heard.

FWD.us said the celebrity involvement was intended as a light-hearted add-on and that the goal was for members of Congress to see the real faces of constituents supporting reform.

The group has backed other initiatives, such as forging a common front between farmers and technology companies, to pressure Congress.

Its strategy of seeking bipartisan support backfired however when environmental allies quit the group over its funding for members of congress who backed immigration reform as well as oil drilling.