Wed Jun 22, 11:35 am ET
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist comes out as illegal immigrant
By Liz Goodwin
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas reveals in The New York Times Magazine that he's lived in the United States for nearly 20 years as an illegal immigrant.
Vargas writes that his Filipino mother sent him to live with his grandparents--who were legally living in the Bay Area--when he was only 12 years old. He was placed on a plane with a man who he was told was his uncle--in actuality, a "coyote," ie., a person who helps marshal illegal immigrants across the U.S. border--and has never seen his mother since.
When he was 16, Vargas writes, he applied for a driver's license and discovered that his green card was fake. He spent the next 15 years hiding his secret from friends, classmates, and employers, hoping that some form of immigration reform would pass in the meantime and allow him to live openly in the country.
"This deceit never got easier," he writes. "The more I did it, the more I felt like an impostor, the more guilt I carried â€" and the more I worried that I would get caught. But I kept doing it. I needed to live and survive on my own, and I decided this was the way."
Now, Vargas is starting a campaign called Define American, where he's spotlighting immigrants' stories.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110622/us_yblog_thelookout/pulitzer-prize-winning-journalist-comes-out-as-illegal-immigrant
Illegal immigrants who was forced to come into the country due to strange situation including childhood = LET THEM IN!
Illegal immigrants who is fully aware of their illegal status and have made a successful attempt to cross the border illegally = SEND THEM BACK!
You are not dictated by your own origin. You are determined by your own culture you grew up with. If you lived in the American culture, act like one, speak like one, but as an illegal immigrant, you are still an American.
Afterall, United States of America is made up of a dysfunctional family of immigrants :)
Good luck sending them back:
QuoteThe illegal immigrant population of the United States in 2008 was estimated by the Center for Immigration Studies to be about 11 million people, down from 12.5 million people in 2007.[2] Other estimates range from 7 to 20 million.[3] According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, in 2005, 56% of illegal immigrants were from Mexico; 22% were from other Latin American countries, primarily from Central America;[4] 13% were from Asia; 6% were from Europe and Canada; and 3% were from Africa and the rest of the world.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States
The focus on the border is overdone. Half of all illegal immigrants entered the country legally and just stayed past the point they were supposed to go. And not all of them had some pre-conceived agenda to stay here illegally when they entered.
It's not as catchy in our current mode of soundbite politics, but facts rarely are.