Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, announced Friday that they are donating $33 million to provide college scholarships for undocumented students who were brought to the country illegally as children.

The contribution by the couple is the largest ever to the TheDream.US, a nonprofit co-founded in 2014 by former Washington Post owner Don Graham, who sold the newspaper to Bezos in 2013.


The organization said that the money will provide scholarships to 1,000 undocumented students who are currently protected from deportation by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Donald Trump plans to phase out unless Congress acts.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress are negotiating with the White House on a legislative deal to address the roughly 700,000 young undocumented immigrants who could face deportation when DACA winds down in March.

“MacKenzie and I are honored to be able to help today’s Dreamers by funding these scholarships,” Bezos said in a statement, noting that his father came to the U.S. as an immigrant from Cuba when he was 16 years old.

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The undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive student financial aid from the federal government and most states. Through the scholarship program, they can receive up to $33,000 in aid over four years to help pay for college at one of 70 partner institutions. The program said it currently funds 2,850 Dreamers.


Bezos "thinks that helping you is a great way to help not only your future but the future of the United States,” Graham said of Dreamers on a conference call with reporters Friday.

The donation from Bezos comes as a large number of corporate executives, especially from the technology industry, have called on Congress to find a permanent solution for DACA beneficiaries. Earlier this week, Bezos was among more than 100 CEOs who signed an open letter to lawmakers asking for legislation to be passed no later than Jan. 19, the same date government funding expires under a stopgap spending bill. DACA has become tied to those spending negotiations.

Despite his vast wealth, Bezos is not known for big-check philanthropy. He was honored by the Human Rights Campaign last year for the $2.5 million he and his wife pledged to support marriage equality efforts in Washington state in 2012.

But in June, Bezos declared via Twitter that he was developing a strategy for his personal philanthropy and seeking the internet’s input. “I’m thinking I want much of my philanthropic activity to be helping people in the here and now — short term — at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact,” he wrote.


Graham told reporters that he wrote to Bezos after the tweet and made a pitch for TheDream.Us. "I said that intersection is where we live," he said. "There is immense short-term need, and by giving this opportunity to these students, you’re really going to change the country."