Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of an advocacy group called Fwd.us Thursday, which will lobby for immigration changes, higher academic standards and investment in scientific research.

Congress is discussing whether to open a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country, even as some lawmakers call for stricter border control, Bloomberg reported.

Fwd.us will help support helping undocumented workers to become citizens and is calling for an increase in H-1B visas, which according to Bloomberg is a program favored by the technology industry that let skilled guest workers come to the U.S.

 "We will work with members of Congress from both parties, the administration and state and local officials," Zuckerberg wrote in the column. "We will use online and offline advocacy tools to build support for policy changes, and we will strongly support those willing to take the tough stands necessary to promote these policies in Washington."

The co-founder of Facebook is grateful and appreciative for his lineage that got him to where he is today.

"My great-grandparents came through Ellis Island," Zuckerberg said in a Washington Post opinion column announcing the move. "My grandfathers were a mailman and a police officer. My parents are doctors. I started a company. None of this could have happened without a welcoming immigration policy, a great education system and the world's leading scientific community that created the Internet."

Fwd.us calls for providing law enforcement with tools for helping secure the U.S. border, along with an employment-verification system that is "simple and effective." Zuckerberg's group also supports changes to the immigration system to "better strengthen the American economy and American families."

Contributors already to Fwd.us include Yahoo! Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer, Google Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt, Netflix Inc. CEO Reed Hastings, and Andrew Mason, co-founder and former CEO of Groupon Inc.

Fwd.us encourages visitors to its site to take action by posting a message to the website of Menlo Park, California-based Facebook or to Twitter.