tagged w/ Vargas
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I understand why he is telling his secret but the political climate now towards illegals I'm hoping it works out for him. Brave Man
(AP)
WASHINGTON — A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the Virginia Tech massacre for the Washington Post went public Wednesday with a secret he says he has been keeping for nearly two decades: He is an illegal immigrant.
Jose Antonio Vargas, whose mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California when he was 12, 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.
"I'm done running. I'm exhausted," Vargas wrote in a New York Times Magazine essay posted online Wednesday. "I don't want that life anymore."
Vargas' New York Times magazine essay
Vargas referred a request for comment from The Associated Press to his public relations team, which did not immediately make him available Wednesday. He also spoke to ABC News in interviews that will air Thursday and Friday.
He says he didn't know about his citizenship status until four years after he arrived in the U.S., when he applied for a driver's permit and handed a clerk his green card.
"This is fake," a Department of Motor Vehicles clerk said, according to Vargas' account. "Don't come back here again."
Vargas confronted his grandfather, who acknowledged he purchased the green card and other fake documents.
"I remember the very first instinct was, OK, that's it, get rid of the accent," Vargas told ABC. "Because I just thought to myself, you know, I couldn't give anybody any reason to ever doubt that I'm an American."
He convinced himself that if he worked hard enough and achieved enough, he would be rewarded with citizenship, Vargas wrote in the magazine piece.
His grandfather imagined the fake documents would help Vargas get low-wage jobs. College seemed out of reach, until Vargas told Mountain View High School Principal Pat Hyland and school district Superintendent Rich Fisher about his problem. They became mentors and surrogate parents, eventually finding a scholarship fund for high-achieving students that allowed him to attend San Francisco State University.
Vargas was hired for internships at The San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News. He was denied an internship at The Seattle Times because he didn't have all the documents they required. But he kept applying and got an offer from The Washington Post.
The newspaper required a driver's license, so Vargas said his network of mentors helped him get one from Oregon, which has less stringent requirements than some other states.
Once hired full-time at the Post, he used the fake license to cover Washington events, including a state dinner at the White House, Vargas recalled.
He wrote that he was nearly paralyzed with anxiety that his secret would be found out at the Post. He tried to avoid reporting on immigration policy, but at times, it was impossible. At one point, he wrote about then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's position on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
Vargas eventually told his mentor, Peter Perl, now the newspaper's training director. Perl told him that once he had accomplished more, they would tell then-Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Post Chairman Don Graham together. They kept the secret until Vargas left the paper.
On Wednesday, Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti condemned their actions.
"What Jose did was wrong. What Peter did was wrong," Coratti said, declining to comment further on personnel matters. "We are also reviewing our internal procedures, and we believe this was an isolated incident of deception."
An e-mail seeking comment was sent to Perl.
Vargas shared a Pulitzer Prize for the Post's coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. A 2006 series he wrote on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington inspired a documentary film. Last year, he wrote a profile of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for The New Yorker.
Most recently, he was a senior contributing editor at Huffington Post. He said he left after less than a year and was worried professionally about a looming deadline: the expiration of his 8-year-old Oregon driver's license.
Just before he turned 30 this year, Vargas said he obtained a Washington state driver's license, which would have given him a five-year reprieve — and meant five more years of lying. He said he couldn't deal with that.
"In my heart, I'm an American," Vargas told ABC. "I am one of many, many people, and we are not who you think we are. We don't just mow your lawns and babysit your kids and serve you tacos. ... We do a really good job doing that, but we do other things, and we are a part of this society."
On Wednesday, Vargas launched a campaign called Define American to use stories of immigrants like himself to urge Congress and the Obama administration to pursue immigration reform. His high school principal and superintendent have signed on as board members.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/22/national/main20073449.shtmlI understand why he is telling his secret but the political climate now towards... more
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Mario Vargas Llosa has been awarded with the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday at the Swedish Academy. The academy said that Mario Vargas Llosa has beenMario Vargas Llosa has been awarded with the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday at... more
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Peruvian Mario Vargas wins the Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize for literature is one of the most prestigious categories of the awards. Peruvian is especially knownPeruvian Mario Vargas wins the Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize for literature... more
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Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian writer, was awarded the biggest accolade in literature. The Swedish Academy put aside all criticism by appreciating Mario Vargas Llosa for his writing technique and expressionMario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian writer, was awarded the biggest accolade in literature.... more
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