By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2011 Journal Group Link International)

Jose A. Vargas’ “My Life As An Undocumented Immigrant” Comes out in Tomorrow’s (June 26, 2011) Issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine

C HICAGO (jGLi) – The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government, said Thursday (June 23) it will only take “enforcement action on a case-by-case – prioritizing those present the most significant threats to public safety” when asked if it will arrest Filipino Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas who outed himself as an illegal immigrant in his article in the New York Times Wednesday.

ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas told this reporter in an email that “ICE takes enforcement action on a case by case basis – prioritizing those who present the most significant threats to public safety as determined by their criminal history and taking into consideration the specific facts of each case, including immigration history.”

In a tell-all confession, the Filipino Pulitzer-Prize winner, the most hallowed honor in the profession, made a clean breast of himself when he admitted that he is an undocumented immigrant.

“I’m done running. I’m exhausted. I don’t want that life anymore,” was how Vargas, a 30-year-old native of Zambales province in the Philippines, summed up his 4,608-word essay, “My Life As An Undocumented Immigrant” that will also come out in the June 26, 2011, issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

After reaching out to his “former bosses and employers and apologized for misleading them – a mix of humiliation and liberation coming with each disclose” and who gave him permission to use their names, Vargas decided to “work with a legal counsel to review my options” in outing himself as an undocumented immigrant grant (TNT, Tago Nang Tago in Tagalog). But he admitted, “I don’t know what the consequences will be of telling my story.”

However, Phil Bronstein, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote in his blog that he felt “duped by Jose Vargas.”

“I once hired an illegal immigrant to be a reporter for the Chronicle,” he wrote. Bronstein said that he was not aware of Vargas’s situation while the latter was at the Chronicle.

He believes the “most likely road kill” in the whole issue may be Vargas’s mentor at the Washington Post, Peter Perl.

Bronstein also wonders how the story may ultimately affect the immigration laws in the United States.

“Immigration laws … are a hopeless jumble of unenforced, unenforceable or just plain unaddressed issues covering 11 million people,” he wrote.

Warning for Vargas, Bronstein said that Vargas will have to be careful now that he has revealed his true situation.

“Like many successful young people blessed with talent and brains, Jose has a healthy dose of hubris. He’ll have to watch that as much as he will the approaching footsteps of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency) enforcers.”

But Bronstein said that Vargas may be forgiven eventually.

He said that Vargas gave a human face to the important issue of immigration, and that if Vargas’s story and project, Define American, ends up helping in the creation of sane immigration policies, then Vargas should be forgiven for his lies.

Outing himself in U.S. mainstream media is definitely a lawyer’s nightmare as his revelations would limit his lawyer to offer him his legal defenses.

For instance, his grandfather, a naturalized U.S. citizen, provided him a “fake Green Card” and doctored his “Social Security Card” so he can find a job. His grandfather, though, can no longer be prosecuted as he died in 2007.

While he could still be prosecuted for obtaining a driver’s license using fictitious address, his former employers may not be sanctioned anymore if it is proven that they hired him without knowing that he is an undocumented immigrant.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DEPORTED 800K TNT’s

But Vargas is aware that he could easily be deported as “the Obama administration has deported almost 800,000 people in the last two years” from among the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

He would have been a shoo-in beneficiary of the DREAM Act, co-sponsored by Senators Durbin and Richard Lugar, after it passed the House late last year. But it fell through in the Senate.

His case is the second involving a Filipino recently brought into spotlight. Mark Farrales, 31, a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, who was pursuing his doctorate degree at the University of California in San Diego was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last November in his home in his Reseda, Los Angeles, California “for being in the country illegally.”

Farrales has since been released by the ICE and was given a one-year reprieve to legalize his stay. Farrales’ lawyer, Leon Hazany, did not respond when this reporter sought his comment on the Vargas case.

Meanwhile, the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) is calling on the U.S. Congress once again to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, commonly known as the DREAM Act.

Reintroduced in the US Senate on May 11, 2011, the measure passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last year, but failed in the U.S. Senate.

The bill would provide conditional permanent residency to illegal alien students who graduate from US high schools, are of good moral character, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment if they complete two years in the military or two years at a four year institution of higher learning.

“Approximately 40-44 percent of the undocumented student population in the Asian community are Filipino students,” says NaFFAA National Chairman Eduardo Navarra. “They are among hundreds of committed activists whose tireless energy and relentless advocacy made last year’s historic vote possible. Their courage in speaking out and telling their stories made a big difference in moving this legislation forward.“

Chairman Navarra commends Vargas for his courage in coming forward, own up to what he has done and tell his own story.  “NaFFAA completely supports Jose’s personal advocacy to get the DREAM Act passed,” adds Mr. Navarra. “I urge all Filipino Americans to play an active role in getting Congress to act on this measure this year.  Tens of thousands of students who came to the U.S. without legal status would benefit from passage of this act.”

Jose Vargas is the fifth Filipino to win the Pulitzer. The first was Carlos P. Romulo, who wrote a series predicting the outbreak of World War II. Three other Filipino-American media practitioners won it: Byron Acohido won its best-beat reporting; Alex Tizon for best investigative reporting; and Cheryl Diaz Meyer for news photography category in 2004 for her work in Iraq. # # #

Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at: (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)