Pulitzer-winning journalist admits he's illegal immigrant

[proud2BlibKansan]

WASHINGTON — A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the Virginia Tech massacre for the Washington Post went public Wednesday with a secret he has been keeping for nearly two decades: He is an illegal immigrant.

Jose Antonio Vargas tells ABC News in interviews airing Thursday and Friday that he is outing himself as one of millions of illegal U.S. immigrants after living with the secret for years. He also told his story in a New York Times Magazine essay published online Wednesday.

"I'm done running. I'm exhausted," Vargas wrote. "I don't want that life anymore."

He says that now he wants to push Congress to pass a bill called the DREAM Act that would allow people like him to become citizens if they go to college or serve in the military.

more . . . http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43499929/ns/us_news-life /

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I support his efforts to become a citizen.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. He's brave for speaking out

It's a pretty interesting story.

[alp227]

13. He noted in his article that his grandparents were naturalized US citizens

www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/magazine/my-life-as-an-undoc...

"My grandparents were naturalized American citizens — he worked as a security guard, she as a food server — and they had begun supporting my mother and me financially when I was 3, after my father’s wandering eye and inability to properly provide for us led to my parents’ separation."

So couldn't his grandparents have petitioned Mrs. Vargas and Jose for citizenship?

I posted the original article in Editorials & Other Articles: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[csziggy]

16. The rules prevented them from sponsoring their married daughter

Mr. Vargas's mother, even though she was separated/divorced (not sure what the exact relationship between her and his father were). It's covered in the article.

[alp227]

18. the article said that JAV's parents were separated

and that JAV's mother never came to America, so couldn't the grandparents have adopted JAV if he was going to live with them?

[csziggy]

22. I don't know what the rules were at the time about adoption

His grandparents may have considered that they had done what they could or what they needed to with the forged documents.

[alp227]

23. as citizens they could've known they could go to court and seek formal custody of Jose

and here's the USCIS page on immigration through adoption (you might need to refresh it while it's loading to read it). The Philippines is part of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption that was signed in 1993 (the year Jose came to America). So he'd go through the Hague process. It's sad how he had a family connection to America but never got to take advantage of that.

[EFerrari]

3. That kind of stress is so bad for you.

I hope someone figures out a fix for Jose.

[MrDiaz]

4. DAMN those corporations that

hire illegal immigrants. We need to go after ABC because the corporations that hire them here are the problem... right???

[pampango]

5. Repubs would love to punish the Post to death.

They would love to have an "Alabama-style" immigration law so they could yank the business license of the Post.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

6. So, how did he get hired?

What kinds of documents did he show for his I-9? If he knowingly used documents that are false, then that's a totally different ballgame. What social security number is he using?

[Lance_Boyle]

7. Seriously - he's been committing fraud(s) for decades.

Should make it real easy for ICE when illegals out themselves as illegals - as if they're proud of it! Somehow I doubt we'll see this guy on the next bus to TJ, though.

[Ignis]

21. "illegals"

[rucky]

8. It's all in the article.

Which is a great read.

[WatsonT]

12. But it's not a crime-crime

because people say it isn't.

[malaise]

9. Wow!

Birds have more freedom than humans

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

10. So he knowingly used a SSN obtained with a fake passport

Sorry. I don't feel sorry for him. I am a legal green card holder. I went through all the painstaking applications, petitions, filing fees and - more importantly - 14 years of waiting to make sure I did things by the book. Thousands upon thousands do the same (by the book) on a daily basis. Part of being a welcomed guest is to respect that country's laws (at least that's what I was thought by my parents).

This guy's grandfather knowingly procures a FAKE passport and then he obtains a social security number based upon a faked passport... that's fraud. That's dishonest and unethical. It has nothing to do with his immigration status - once you cross that line by obtaining false documents, you lose whatever ethical grounds you had (and I do agree that children who were brought illegally to the U.S. should be granted a path to citizenship or permanent residence - in other words, I support the DREAM Act).

He could have called his congressperson and asked for a private bill or he could have talked to a lawyer (there were a couple of amnesties in place, including one in 2001-2002 that could have served him well) or he could have gone back to the Philippines, as painful as that might have been (I faced a similar situation when my parents, sick and tired of paying expensive college tuition, and facing even more years for my green card to arrive, were advised that perhaps I should leave the U.S. and go back to Italy - where I would have been alone without relatives and fending for myself without a job - fortunately, I got married before that time came).

[alp227]

14. and most of all grandpa was a US citizen

I don't know what drove him to go the illegal route rather than formal petition for citizenship or adoption (see my reply 13). And I too support a path to citizenship for illegals brought here before age 16 or so. You can't tell me that they deserve to be deported (unless they commit crimes of course). But there's really no defending human smuggling, ilelgal employment, or document falsification.

[tishaLA]

24. Read his article

he talked to lots of lawyers and had good people help him get the best help possible. There was nothing they could do.

And I think it's great that you got a green card, but it wasn't Jose's choice that, at 12 years old, his mother handed him off to a coyote who brought him to the US. Nor was it his choice when his Lolo obtained a fake social security card for him. He has done the best he could with the hand dealt to him. That, unfortunately, required that he either return to the Philippines--a country he didn't remember well, where he would live in destitution--or finding ways of fulfilling his promise by using his faked social security card to obtain a driver's license. And working to excel as an American.

BTW, Jose didn't have the opportunity to get married so he could have legal status here. He's gay.

[Obamanaut]

11. Now with the money he has likely accumulated as a prize winning

journalist, he can return to the Philippines, live well on that money, and if he so decides apply for entry into the US as a legal immigrant.

[tblue37]

15. I believe that once someone has been caught violating immigration law, he is

from that point forward excluded from legally immigrating to the US.

[Obamanaut]

17. Then he can stay in the Philippines and live well on the money he

accumulated while living a life of fraud as an illegal immigrant.

But he can still apply, even though the application may well be denied.

[alp227]

19. and he speaks Tagalog so he shouldn't have a problem in his native country.

America ain't got nothing to lose if he leaves, I'm sure he can find a journalism job in the Philippines. Since he was brought to the US as a child, I don't think that ICE should count that against him if he ever re-applies for legal residency in the future. And if he has a deportation on record, does that prevent him from legally immigrating to any other nation such as Canada or the UK? On the other hand, since JAV has said he's gay, I doubt that he could survive in the heavily Catholic Philippines, so maybe he could have a hardship case.

[Obamanaut]

20. There are people in the Philippines who speak English. Other languages

as well.

There are English newspapers printed, and other languages as well, in the Philippines. A prize-winning writer should be able to find an outlet for his writing there, assuming he needs or wants to work.

Immigrants who do not speak English manage to survive in the US. For that matter, consideration is given to many who are English-challenged by having multi lingual signs, labels on food products, etc.