AL.com
By Madison Underwood
October 31, 2012
Jose Antonio Vargas said Tuesday night that people often ask him why he "came out" as an undocumented immigrant at all, and especially in the pages of the New York Times Sunday Magazine.
"People like me are not coming out," Vargas said. "We're just letting you in. We are coming out, individually and collectively, to say we're not who you think we are, and this is not what you think it is."
Vargas was at UAB's Hill University Alumni Center in Birmingham Tuesday to host a discussion on immigration called "Do I Look Illegal? A Conversation with Jose Antonio Vargas." The event was sponsored by the Birmingham News and al.com, the UAB student group SALSA, the Society of Professional Journalist's Alabama statewide chapter, and Vargas' group, Define American.
Vargas, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to the Washington Post's coverage of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, spoke for the first 45 minutes of the event and then fielded questions from members of the audience, people watching the live feed of the event online at al.com, and from users on Twitter.
He went over his biography and answered several frequently asked questions during his speech. He mused that some of the reaction to immigration might have something to do with the shrinking population of white people in comparison to other races.
"When they ask me, 'Where did my country go?' I don't know what country they're talking about," Vargas said. "I don't know if they know we live in the same country."
Vargas was brought to America in 1993, when he was 12. He didn't learn that he was undocumented until 1997, when he applied for a driver's license and had his documents rejected. He kept his status a secret.
"I thought I could just write my way into America," Vargas told the crowd of about 300. He said he thought if he just kept his head down and worked hard, he could make it.
"For the next 13 years, that's precisely what I did: I lied, I broke the law, so I could pay taxes, so I could support my mom in the Philippines," Vargas said. But, while covering state dinners and events in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., his status began to bother him.
"I thought I had the word 'illegal' tattooed on my forehead," Vargas said. He told his editor, who did not report him.
During the question and answer session, Vargas said he was asked earlier on Tuesday how he responded to concerns that cheap immigrant labor makes it more difficult for legal people to get jobs.
"That's a very legitimate question." Vargas said. "Wait a minute. Are you blaming the people who are getting the job, or the people that are doing the hiring?" There's a paradox, Vargas said. There is effectively a sign at the border that says "Keep Out."
"Ten yards later: 'Help Wanted."
Vargas was joined on stage by Victor Palafox, an undocumented activist from Alabama who was brought to America as a child. Asked why undocumented aliens do not serve in the military and earn their citizenship that way, he said many would if they were able.
Palafox said he has confronted politicians, including Alabama state Sen. Scott Beason (R-Gardendale), and asked why they support Alabama's immigration law. "Why are you against us when we're so willing to be here?," Palafox said he asked the politicians.
Birmingham News/al.com community engagement specialist Joey Kennedy fielded a question from the audience: Who benefits from our immigration policy?
"Employers," Palafox said. "You basically have conventions of indentured servitude." Palafox said he knows people in the area who cannot leave their jobs even though they are mistreated. Vargas said he hears frequently that undocumented people are threatened with being reported by employers who don't want them to quit.
One viewer asked what advice Palafox and Vargas had for undocumented people when it comes to revealing their status.
"I would say please do so. Please, please, please do so," Palafox said. "Coming out as undocumented is one of the most liberating things."
"At the end of the day, this is something you do for yourself," Vargas said. "I am doing this because we have to work for the greater good, and because we have to speak up for the people who can't speak up for themselves."
Palafox and Vargas also each addressed a question about how they see their lives as undocumented immigrants playing out.
"My happy ending is not missing a turn signal and being deported," Palafox said. He wants to be a history teacher and teach people why he loves the country.
"I just want to be able to drive," Vargas said. "I just want a license. I just want to be able to take my grandmother on trips. I just want to be able to be a full human being. I guess that's what happiness is."
"This is arguably the most controversial, yet least understood issue in America," Vargas said in his opening speech. "People just do not know how this works."
"12 million undocumented white people from Europe crossed the border known as the Atlantic Ocean," much like, Vargas said, the approximately 12 million Latino undocumented immigrants that are thought to be in the U.S. now.
"What's the difference?" Vargas asked. "Is it because we look different? Is it because we cook different food? Or we speak different languages?"
"What exactly does an illegal look like? Can you tell?"
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