Jose Vargas Reveals Life As An Undocumented Immigrant

CAVANAUGH: This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. When San Diego celebrates the memory of doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Next week at the all-people's breakfast, an undocumented immigrant will be the featured speaker. Journalist Jose Vargas has revealed his immigration status recently after living, attending school, and working in this country for nearly 20 years. Vargas has worked for the Washington post and shared a Pulitzer prize for reporting on the Virginia tech shootings. His article about living as an undocumented immigrant appeared several months ago in the New York Times. Welcome to Midday Edition. VARGAS: Thank you so much for having me. CAVANAUGH: You're welcome. Jose, since you made your immigration status public, have you been waiting for that knock on the door from the INS? VARGAS: I'm frankly -- I mean, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But I certainly was prepared then, and I'm prepared now to kind of get a call from I.C.E. or the department of homeland security. But I have in the heard from any of them. And I don't think I could have been more public about what my situation is. CAVANAUGH: Right. And as I say, you on outlined in a long article in the New York Times your whole story. Tell us how you came to this country. VARGAS: So I came -- I was born in the Philippines. And my mother decided to send me to her parents' in mountain View, which is in the bay area when I was 12. And her parents are both naturalized, American citizens. So I got to Mountain View when I was 12. And this is 1993. And a few years later, when I was 16, like any 16 year-old, I went to the DMV to get a driver's permit without telling my grandparents. I just went. Then when I showed the woman at the DMV my -- she asked for my green card or some form of ID, when I showed her my green card, the woman at the DMV basically -- she flipped it around twice and said that it was fake. And she told me that I shouldn't go back there again. CAVANAUGH: You shouldn't go back to the DMV again? VARGAS: Yeah. And I knew -- I thought she was lying. My first distinct was, OKAY, this has to be a mistake. Like, why -- you know, how could -- how could it have been fake? CAVANAUGH: Right. VARGAS: And to be honest with you, like most people in this country, I remember thinking to myself, wait a second -- I thought when people think "fake IDs" or "illegal alien it is, which is such an ugly phrase, I thought that was only for Mexican people. And I remember thinking, I'm not Mexican so -- no! This is not right. CAVANAUGH: Right. So what did your grand parents tell you about -- VARGAS: So when I went home, I rode my bike home, and I confronted my grandfather. And that's when I found out. That's when he confirmed what the woman at the DMV said. And by the way, I wish I had her name, the woman at the DMV. I owe her -- you imagine, she let me go. She could have reported me. So that's when I found out, and I was 16, I was a freshman in high school. CAVANAUGH: Did your grandparents, Jose, tell you why they decided to bring you in illegally? VARGAS: Yeah, they basically like my mother said that they wanted to give me a better life. Equated having a better life. My grandmother was a food server, my grand father was a security guard. I remember growing up in the Philippines and thinking that they were the richest people around because -- that's what I thought. Then I get to America, and I realize just how hard they worked for that money. CAVANAUGH: So Jose, you came over here when I was 12. VARGAS: Yes. CAVANAUGH: And you found out that you were here illegally, that you didn't have proper documentation. So thus began the life of everyday deceptions that you outline in the article in the New York Times. And that includes a whole world of different things, including an inability to travel, right? VARGAS: Yeah, I mean, it began kind of -- I was 16. I didn't really know what that meant. And in some ways, that was when my own reporting career started. I asked them questions about how could this have happened? How could I have just got to this country? And then of course finding out -- now, my mind you, this was before the Dream can have act, which gives conditional path to legalization for undocumented kids. I didn't think, frankly, when I first found out, I thought well, does this mean that I have to be a babysitter or mow lawns? Is that what my future is going to be? CAVANAUGH: How did you get to college? VARGAS: You know, I got to college because basically -- and again, this is what this organization that is started is all about, I've just been very fortunate. I had my high school principle, my high school superintendent, my choir teacher, my English teacher, they were, like, about four or five administrators and teachers in my high school, Mountain View high school, that I told them what my situation is, and they found a way. My principle, my superintendent who had been, like, my surrogate parents in a way. They found a rich guy, a venture capitalist that sent me to college and didn't question my immigration status. CAVANAUGH: Now, I think one of the most remarkable aspects of this story, Jose, is the fact that you went from college and you embarked on a very high-profile career as a journalist at the Washington post. As I said, you shared a Pulitzer prize for reporting on the Virginia tech shootings. What is it lick trying to do this kind of outstanding work at a news organization and lie about so many things at the same time? VARGAS: That's kind of the tension about the whole thing, really. As a journalist, my job is to get to the truth. Right? I mean, that's our job. And I couldn't be truthful about this fact of my life. And when my article, when the essay in the New York Times was first published a few months ago, it's only been six months. It's not like it's been two years. Some people in it is media criticized me and derided me for lying. And again, this is the whole point of coming out, kind of saying that I'm sorry that I had to lie. But at the end of the day, if I hadn't lied about my immigration status, I couldn't even have been in those news rooms. You know? I worked for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country. I profiled mark Zuckerberg for the New Yorker. And it was around that time, you know, I've always wanted to write for the New Yorker, ever since I was a kid picking that magazine up thea the library, and thinking if I want to be a serious writer, I have to go write for this thing. And everything -- I remember when I was in high school making a list of the things I thought I had to do to be successful to be considered successful, like as a journalist, I thought I had to write for a prestigious news organization, I had to cover a presidential campaign, I had to win some big journalistic prize, I to write for the New Yorker. And everything that I wanted in that list I checked off. CAVANAUGH: But it distill didn't make up for the fact that you were not here with proper documentation. VARGAS: And not just that, I mean I think what really weighed heavily on me was, you know, this is the day of twitter and Facebook and this new social media network we're living in. I'm following all these undocumented kids on twitter, I'm seeing their Facebook status updates without being out myself about my status. And then I felt really like a coward, thinking that there's all these kids risking their lives coming out about their status, and here I am, you know, living my comfortable life in Manhattan, making a lot of money, and how could I stay quiet? CAVANAUGH: Jose, I have to ask you this because activists against illegal immigration would say the best and fairest thing you could have done was to go back to the land of your birth. And then of course start the proper way of petitioning to come to America legally. Did you ever consider doing that? VARGAS: Oh, yeah. I'm a pretty good reporter. I considered everything. I talked to lawyers, I talked to nearly 30 lawyers, all of whom told me that I shouldn't do this. And I considered -- one of the options was why don't I just go to the Philippines where I haven't been since I was 12, I haven't seen my mother since I was 12. It's been 18 years. CAVANAUGH: Wow. VARGAS: Why don't I go home to the Philippines, write the essay from there, and get it published in the New York Times? I was about to sell a book on the Internet. I was going to do a book on the Internet. So I'm thinking maybe I should just do a book on my life as an undocumented immigrant and leave the country and do that. But that felt really cowardly. CAVANAUGH: Uh-huh. VARGAS: That to me wasn't an option because at the end of the day, we have to face what this is. And I think it would have sent such a bad signal. I'm in a privileged position. Not everybody can call the New York Times and say, hey, the Washington post killed my essay. Can you go run it? Not anybody has interviewed mark Zuckerberg and Al Gore. And I guess, relatively, high-profile as a journalist. CAVANAUGH: Right. VARGAS: I thought and I think that I have a responsibility and an obligation to kind of tell this full story. Because to me, coming back to your point, I actually think I'm not -- my story is -- we could go down the street in San Diego right now, and I bet you we could easily find dozens of people that share kind of the same outline, right? They might not be journalists, but there are doctors, engineers, biologists. Whatever. But to me, the real story is my high school principle. My high school superintendent. The guy that sent me to college. The guy at the wash post who was a high ranking senior editor. I came out to him right when I got to the Washington post and he said don't tell anybody else. Just keep going. How many other American citizens are out there, right, doing that exact same thing for people like me? CAVANAUGH: Right. I have to stop you there because we are just out of time Jose. But I want to let everyone know that the 24th annual all-people's breakfast, all-people's speak is next Monday morning at the San Diego bay front Hilton. And Jose Vargas will be the featured speaker at that event. Thank you for speaking with us, Jose. VARGAS: Thank you for having me.