Pulitzer-winning Fil-American journalist outs himself as undocumented immigrant
Jose Antonio Vargas is a former reporter for The Washington Post and shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. He founded Define American, which seeks to change the conversation on immigration reform. He also wrote that New Yorker profile of Mark Zuckerberg that we linked to here.
My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant
By JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS
Published: June 22, 2011
One August morning nearly two decades ago, my mother woke me and put me in a cab. She handed me a jacket. “Baka malamig doon” were among the few words she said. (“It might be cold there.”) When I arrived at the Philippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport with her, my aunt and a family friend, I was introduced to a man I’d never seen. They told me he was my uncle. He held my hand as I boarded an airplane for the first time. It was 1993, and I was 12. . .
Read the article in the New York Times.
Even more interesting than the written confession are the comments posted in the many sites that picked up this story. Snapshot of the American mindset.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 24th, 2011 at 04:15
This was all over the internets yesterday. I don’t feel sorry for him at all. IMO you HAVE to do the things you have to do in order to worry about more important things in (and get on with your) life than what millions of other people much less talented and intelligent than him found a way to remedy given their similar situations.
But bravo for his bravery!!! We could use more of his talent in the Philippines where there isn’t much high-quality journalism. He might eventually discover there isn’t anything wrong about coming home after all.
June 24th, 2011 at 08:43
very interesting! i’m curious to know how his story ends.
June 24th, 2011 at 13:40
OTOH in the RP, the undocumented chinese immigrants seem to be content with their non-filipino citizen status.
btw, is “jose antonio” mr. vargas’ real name? in the US kasi, the more ethnic your name sounds, the more credibility you have with liberals and mexican pro-amnesty lobby.
if you’ll recall, the current mayor of LA’s real name used to be Tony Villar. but now he’s antonio villaraigosa. Ethnic!
June 25th, 2011 at 01:21
Jessica, it looks like things will be good for Vargas. NPR reports that there’s a good chance he’ll be allowed to stay in the US. I think the next step for him is to finally apply for citizenship and put this legal bind behind him.
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/24/137390554/will-journalist-face-deportation-signs-point-to-no?sc=fb&cc=fp
June 25th, 2011 at 15:42
One of my early memories is of a freckled kid in middle school asking me, “What’s up?” I replied, “The sky,” and he and a couple of other kids laughed.
corny. heard this several times. which only suggests, this memory is contrived.
June 29th, 2011 at 08:35
@Dr. Feelgood, I agree with you. I don’t sympathize with him at all. But I admire his resilience.
June 30th, 2011 at 14:23
I’m uneasy with immigration advocates who conflate anti-immigration with anti-illegal immigration. There is a world of difference between the two, foremost of which is the law. Americans who disdain illegal immigration are not necessarily anti-immigrant (I found most, even in the South, very welcoming), and it is devious of Vargas to represent them that way. He is in fact also perpetuating certain stereotypes. Vargas deflects the legal issue by also putting “illegal” under quotes or by replacing it by the softer, less problematic term “undocumented”. It only serves to evade the sticky issue of what to do with people like himself who has in fact immigrated illegally, but has integrated successfully in American society. Can a path to legal status be opened up without short circuiting current laws and thus incentivizing further illegal immigration? Without being unfair and, yes, unjust to those who did proceed through the legal routes? There are compelling reasons people oppose the DREAM Act, not just because they have an irrational fear of immigrants. There is nothing unusual about sovereign nations protecting their borders against encroachment. The Philippine coast guard deport illegal Chinese fishing boats at the contested Spratly Islands all the time. Unfortunately, these immigration barriers also often oppose the entropic diffusion of populations that even out economic gradients. That is why visas are required of Third World citizens for travel to the First World, not vice versa. This then becomes a more profound question of justice that only something like an eschatological inversion can set right.