Jose Antonio Vargas For The Win

Jose Antonio Vargas is a Journalist that left me speechless once I attended a conference he was giving on his new book titled, “Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen,” and this is that story.

As a person that graduated from a primarily black institution with a large number Latinx students, immigration is a very touchy subject for me. All of my friends from school are DACA recipients, and anything that happens to them that affects their status in this country always feels very personal to me, as I too am an immigrant.

One day I was invited by the Latin Association of my university to attend a conference where a journalist with an immigrant background will present his book. I attended, and after his talk on immigration, I never saw the situation the same way.

I knew a lot about the immigration system as I was born in another country. I am a citizen thanks to the naturalization process, but even with something so simple I had to wait a while for my situation to be approved. My older brother, who does not qualify for the naturalization process after a certain age, due to him not being my father's biological son, is also an immigrant who lives in the shadows of the United States, so Vargas' talk was something I was really interested in to understand more about the subject.

He touched on the meaning of his book, and the certain hierarchy that goes into deporting somebody. He also shared many of his works which made me fall in love with his content even more.

A little bit about the great Jose Antonio Vargas, he is a journalist that came to the United States from the Philippines at the age of 12. He was brought here with illegal documents as he was unable to become a citizen the legal way. Since then, Vargas went on to become a journalist at the “New York Times,” where he decided to expose himself to the public as an “illegal” immigrant while hoping to be discovered by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), since he was planning to move to Canada for a fresh start.

“One day when I was 16, I rode my bike to the nearby D.M.V. office to get my driver’s permit. Some of my friends already had their licenses, so I figured it was time. But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. ‘This is fake,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t come back here again,’” wrote Vargas in his article, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.”

Upon doing my research on him, I noticed that he talks about the issues in the immigration system and how they target people who look Hispanic. The thing that makes his story interesting is the fact that his plan while writing the article backed fired. Instead of getting confronted by ICE, he actually got ignored because, as they told him he “wasn’t the priority,” that’s when he decided to expose the hierarchy within the immigration system in the United States.

After the article gained massive attention, he used his journalism background to advocate for better immigration laws. He made sure the world knew that all types of immigrants around the United States do not come from a Spanish speaking country.

As a successful journalist and activist, he continues to write pieces, specifically opinion pieces, on his personal experiences as an immigrant in the United States who also works for a major newspaper. His stories are unique and passionate and inspire many people who are going through similar experiences.

His articles are very personal and I think that is what he is trying to get to expose the unfair treatment immigrants of all statuses receive in this country. One of my personal favorite articles at the New York Times is his first experience getting arrested at an airport due to his status, and how he was placed on the same cages children are being placed due to their status.

“It was July 2014. The cell, as I remember it, was no bigger than 20 by 30 feet. All around me were about 25 boys, as young as 5, the oldest no more than 12. The air reeked. A boy across the room from me was crying inconsolably, his head buried in his chest. Most of the boys wore dazed expressions. It was clear they had no idea where they were or why they were there,” wrote Varagas in his article, “What America Looks Like From a Jail in South Texas.”

This is what I think America should take more seriously and seeing someone who went through it and who is advocating and fighting for immigrants rights by exposing them using opinion journalism is definitely a piece worth sharing.