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June 23, 2011 | 8:42 AM | By

Readers react to the confession of an undocumented Pulitzer winner

Jose Antonio Vargas during a panel appearance in July 2008, the year he and other Washington Post reporters shared a Pulitzer for coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting.

It’s not an overstatement to say that the story of Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer-winning former Washington Post journalist who has admitted to being undocumented, has made its way around the world by now, from Europe to the Philippines.

In a confessional essay published yesterday in the New York Times Magazine, Vargas related how his mother sent him to the United States from the Philippines at age 12 with a smuggler, how he learned he was undocumented at 16 and how he has kept the secret since, navigating school and career with a network of close confidantes, false papers and an out-of-state driver’s license.

The story spread quickly through social media channels, prompting reactions that have ranged from intense anger to applause. Pundits, even former employers have weighed in with their opinions, including San Francisco Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein, who once employed Vargas and wrote about being “duped” before saying that he hoped the story would at least “help craft sane immigration policy.”

Multi-American readers have reacted to the Vargas story in different ways, some calling for his deportation, others identifying with him.

W. Steven Chou pointed out how he and Vargas share a similar background, save for one thing:

The only difference between Mr. Vargas and me is that I came to the US at age 9 with a valid green card because I was lucky enough to have parents who had gotten their green cards through employment.  Mr. Vargas’ story shows how compelling it is to pass the DREAM Act.  These young people who came to the US through no fault of their own should not be punished for the deeds of their parents.  So long as these young people are productive to the society why should they be denied their proper status here in the US?  There is no other difference between Mr. Vargas and the other people who can benefit from the DREAM Act and me.  We all grew up as Americans.

Noel Beale wrote:

Does this mean he can be deported now? Hopefully, as then someone who did not sneak into the US via human trafficking, or someone that didn’t continued to live as a criminal and showed a total lack of respect for US law, can find a job in this hard economic times.

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FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, Define American, Dream Act, Jose Antonio Vargas, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post
June 22, 2011 | 4:14 PM | By

Jose Antonio Vargas: ‘I’m an American, I just don’t have the right papers’

The man behind what has by far been the biggest immigration story of the week, Pulitzer-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, sent out this tweet a little while ago:

There comes a moment when you just crack, when enough is enough. @DefineAmerican

The emotion behind the decision that Vargas made to reveal that he is undocumented is evident in this video from his new website, Define American, an online campaign that the former Washington Post staff writer has founded in hopes of changing the conversation on immigration reform. In it, he presents his own definition:

I define “American” as someone who works really hard, someone who is proud to be in this country and wants to contribute to it. I’m independent. I pay taxes. I’m self-sufficient. I’m an American, I just don’t have the right papers. I take full responsibility for my actions, and I’m sorry for the laws that I have broken.

Vargas confessed his secret in a New York Times magazine story, published today. When he was 12 years old, he was flown to the United States by a smuggler, a man that his mother introduced him to as his “uncle.” Living with his grandparents in the Bay Area, he learned of his status at 16, when he went to a Department of Motor Vehicles office to obtain his driver’s permit and was told there that his green card was fake.

By coming out as undocumented, Vargas has opened himself to significant personal and legal risks, The Atlantic reported today. In a short piece in the National Review, Mark Krikorian of the immigration-restriction think tank Center for Immigration Studies took the Washington Post to task as well for employing him.

The New York Times reported today that Vargas initally offered his story to the Washington Post, but the newspaper passed on publishing the story.

FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, Jose Antonio Vargas, Washington Post
June 22, 2011 | 11:00 AM | By

Why a Pulitzer winner is coming out as undocumented

Photo by PoliticalActivityLaw.com/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Award-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, right

Revealing one’s undocumented status as a political act has so far been embraced mostly by college students, young people eager to put a face on those who would benefit from proposed legislation known as the Dream Act. Now, that face has become a little older, a little more familiar.

In a piece published today in the New York Times Magazine, former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas reveals the secret that has haunted him throughout his career: He is undocumented.

Vargas, who shared a Pulitzer Prize three years ago for coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre, was brought here illegally by a smuggler from the Philippines when he was 12 years old, at his mother’s behest. He writes:

We’re not always who you think we are. Some pick your strawberries or care for your children. Some are in high school or college. And some, it turns out, write news articles you might read. I grew up here. This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own.

In a stunning confession, Vargas tells the story of how he managed to navigate through high school and college, and eventually into a coveted internship and a Washington Post staff writer job, with the help of an intimate network of supporters who knew his secret, among them his grandfather, a legal immigrant who initially arranged for his false papers. He recalls how he researched which states would be most apt to grant him a driver’s license, settling on Oregon. He learned early on that revealing his secret typically led to closed doors, so he kept it to himself, sharing it only with a few close confidantes.

He writes that he was inspired to tell his story by the young people who have revealed their status recently as they campaign for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would grant conditional legal status to youths brought here before age 16 if they go to college or join the military. When he was younger, Vargas would have qualified.

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FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, Dream Act, Jose Antonio Vargas, New York Times Magazine, Sen. Dick Durbin, Washington Post