Laurene Powell Jobs has announced that she backs one of the most controversial topics in United States politics today-what she and other supporters are calling "common-sense" immigration reform.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Powell Jobs has employed some of the same tactics that her late husband, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, used during his time at the multi-billion dollar tech company.
Powell Jobs is gunning for the Dream Act, a bill first introduced in the Senate in 2001 that would grant citizenship to people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. She has lobbied for "common-sense" immigration reform for the United States' almost 11 million illegal immigrants, and helped fund a documentary about undocumented teens.
Just a few years ago, Powell Jobs was an education reformer known for her affiliation with Apple's former CEO. Now, her passion to change the system is putting her at the forefront of the political battle over immigration reform.
But Powell Jobs doesn't necessarily want to stand in the limelight, especially since it could distract the public from the greater cause for which she fights. She told the Wall Street Journal that she is using some elements of her late husband's approach to the immigration campaign.
She chooses her speeches and venues with careful calculation, and keeps an eye on the message she portrays to the public.
"I didn't know if being public would be effective," she said during an interview whose subject matter was solely immigration reform.
Still, she decided to release her support to the media in hopes of boosting the immigration reform following.
Naturally, publicizing her efforts has incited criticism from anti-immigration reformers, including Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration, a group that lobbies against the legalization of undocumented immigrants.
"Immigration is very fashionable, and it's her pet cause," he said.
Laurene Powell Jobs was born in New Jersey to a Marine pilot and teacher. She met Steve Jobs while attending Stanford Graduate School of Business. They married in 1991 and had three children.
