Jose Antonio Vargas

• Jose Antonio Vargas
• Born: February 3, 1981

Is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, writer, director, undocumented immigration rights activist, and founder of Define American, a non-profit media and culture organization that uses the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in a changing America.

Jose Vargas was born in Antipolo, a small town in the Philippines on February 3, 1981. His mother sent him to live in the United States in 1993 when he was twelve years old. Before that day his mother woke him, drove him to the airport, and put him on the plane, he had no idea he was moving to the U.S. He was to live with his maternal grandparents in the Bay Area in Mountain View, California. Soon after arriving, he began sixth grade and started adapting to his new home and surroundings. Vargas excelled in school and took an interest in writing. In high school he discovered journalism and decided he would pursue it as a career.

When he was sixteen years old, Vargas went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain his driver’s permit, as many of his friends were learning to drive. When he handed the worker his green card, he was told that it was a fake. The Department of Motor Vehicles worker did not report him, but told him it would be best if he did not return. Vargas was shocked and confused. Unbeknownst to him, he was an undocumented immigrant. His grandfather (his grandparents were naturalized US citizens) had paid $4,500 for fake documents in the early 1990s for Vargas to come to the U.S. After his arrival, his grandfather paid for and obtained other fake documents with his real name, including a false student visa, passport, and green card. With the counterfeit passport, his grandfather applied for a social security number for Vargas, which he was issued, but he was not given authority to work. In order to work, Vargas and his grandfather forged the social security card by erasing the limitations on his ability to work from the document.

After discovering his immigration status, Vargas threw himself into his studies. He dedicated himself to journalism, believing that writing in English and getting his name printed on as many bylines as possible would mean acceptance in the nation. He became involved in his high-school newspaper. Also in high school, he came out as gay. When he did, his grandfather, who was a strict and conservative Catholic, threw him out of the house. For a short time he was homeless, until he met an older man with whom he lived with and had a relationship.

After high school, Vargas was unsure of his future. Because of his undocumented status, he was ineligible for state and federal financial aid. He did not think he could afford college. Luckily, close family friends helped him find a scholarship for first-generation college students that did not inquire about immigration status. The scholarship provided full room and board and tuition to San Francisco State University, where he graduated with a degree in journalism in 2004.

After college, Vargas went on to write for the Philadelphia Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, and the Washington Post, where he was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007. He also wrote a series on HIV/AIDS for the Washington Post that was turned into a documentary in 2010 called The Other City.

Vargas’s tireless drive was meant to bring him security, both financial and existential, but he found himself increasingly concerned with his immigration status. With each new job that he took, he was using forged documents. He alerted his editor at the Washington Post of his undocumented status and was told to keep it quiet. The constant lies began to weigh down on him.

Finally, in 2011, he outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in a New York Times story titled “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” He wrote: “There are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. 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.” That story was quite controversial and attracted criticism from Vargas’s own former colleagues in journalism. After the 2011 article, Vargas could no longer obtain legal documents like a driver’s license. He started to travel with a Philippine passport, a country that he has not visited since he was 12. He also carries with him as an identity document a “Warrant of Arrest for Alien,” issued by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Vargas has become one of the most prominent immigrant rights activists in the nation. His work as a journalist and his celebrity status have helped draw attention to the plight of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, but it has also protected him from deportation proceedings. For a short time under the administration of President Barack Obama, children brought to the U.S. by their parents were offered a temporary stay on deportations under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The program existed primarily through executive order and White House guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The presidential election of 2016 turned immigration into a central issue. Donald Trump promised multiple times on the campaign trail to deport eleven million undocumented immigrants, build a wall to keep migrants out, and curtail immigration in general. When he was elected in 2016, his administration quickly moved to change the Obama-era guidelines for deportation, which had previously focused on violent criminals. The Trump administration allowed ICE to deport all undocumented immigrants they came into contact with or detained, regardless of any criminal record. Vargas has no protections against the new Trump policies, save his celebrity. And yet, he still continues to use his voice to speak for undocumented immigrants who do not have the platform he does.

For further reading see Vargas’s piece in which he publicly declared his undocumented status, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” New York Times (June 22, 2011). For a profile see Marc Fisher, “From Journalism to Activism: Jose Antonio Vargas’s Life on the Run,” Washington Post (November 23, 2014).