Journalist Admits Is Illegal, Has License Cancelled
Another guy living in the shadows, by which I mean writing an article in a national publication about his illegal status:
Washington state has canceled the driver’s license of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who attracted national attention with his disclosure that he is an illegal immigrant.
Department of Licensing spokeswoman Christine Anthony said Thursday that officials opened an investigation after Jose Antonio Vargas’ essay about his background was published in the New York Times Magazine in June.
Vargas wrote in his essay that he emigrated from the Philippines in 1993 when he was 12 years old at the wish of his mother. He moved to California, where his grandparents had arranged forged documents for him. When he was 16, Vargas wrote, he found out that he was in the country illegally after he tried to obtain a driver’s permit with those documents.
. . . .
The Licensing Department sent Vargas a letter requesting proof of residency, and the letter was returned. The state canceled his license July 18.
I am outraged. I call upon all good citizens of conscience to demand that this man be allowed to seek citizenship in the normal manner that an illegal immigrant seeks citizenship.
One second. I’ve just been handed a note that says he can already do that.
Carry on, then.
Thanks to daleyrocks.
Great! just one more illegal immigrant on the road without a driver’s license or insurance…
ColonelHaiku (4de8c2) — 7/22/2011 @ 8:54 amIsn’t there a procedure where actual citizens can “sponsor” people that want to immigrate? Why don’t each of the citizens who think folks like this man are being mistreated, “sponsor” an illegal immigrant and make them legal immigrants?
Except, of course, if I understand the procedure (and I don’t have all the details), the citizen is then held responsible for the immigrant. They can’t get help from the government and stuff like that. And I guess having obtained fraudulent documents and similar actions might get a bit sticky.
Sue (24e46b) — 7/22/2011 @ 8:56 amGood although the LaRazaphiles will make a stink. And a Law and Order episode will point out how racist we are for saying no.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/22/2011 @ 9:01 amThe horror, the horror.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 7/22/2011 @ 9:22 amFew things irritate me more than the sense of entitlement possessed by illegal immigrants.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/22/2011 @ 9:24 am“Few things irritate me more than the sense of entitlement possessed by illegal immigrants.”
SPQR – Jingoistic, badge-licking, nativist, authoritarian!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 7/22/2011 @ 9:28 amI would never lick a badge, too much heavy metal content. The EPA would be outraged.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/22/2011 @ 9:29 amHow about a boot?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 7/22/2011 @ 9:29 amComment by daleyrocks — 7/22/2011 @ 9:29 am
Do you have any idea what the soles of modern footwear contain?
AD-RtR/OS! (7b7c30) — 7/22/2011 @ 9:50 amAt least if they were leather, we know what they use to tan leather with, and I wouldn’t want to taste any of it.
Bleeding heart ultraleftys to weep for Illegals in 5….4…3…2…1…
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:00 ammodern footwear souls
ColonelHaiku (4de8c2) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:05 ammade from piglips and azzholes
pig have skin in Game
I want to commend someone at the WA DMV for actually thinking that they should follow the law as written by the WA Legislature,
and refuse to endorse this guys status by providing him with a DL.
I certainly hope that they’re allowed to keep their job.
Following the Law: What a novel concept!
AD-RtR/OS! (7b7c30) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:14 amI suppose admitting to your crimes is supposed to be very brave. But the reason it’s brave is that you’re facing the consequences.
I can’t bring myself to hold a grudge against someone who was brought here illegally as a child. Hell, I barely have a grudge against adults coming here because they want work.
But the law is there for good reason, and it’s got to be enforced. A lack of faith in this law being enforced, for long term political electioneering purposes, is one of the biggest reasons we can’t forgive and forget illegals.
I wouldn’t mind if someone like that became a citizen legally, but not with any preference over the law abiding.
Dustin (b7410e) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:23 amYeah, all he has to do is move back to a country he doesn’t know, file some papers and wait ten years and he can come back. There are times when Law = injustice and this is one of them. It’s why immigration law needs to reformed: so farmers and construction companies who abuse, bully, and treat workers badly because they know the illegals have no recourse can be punished and we can allow enough guest workers into the country AND, so some kid brought here against his wishes can be the citizen we need.
We’re a country of immigrants and if the rest of the world wants to send its hard-working, smart people here, then we need a mechanism for them to do so.
timb (449046) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:45 amHey, timmie, Life Ain’t Fair!
AD-RtR/OS! (7b7c30) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:47 amGet over it.
It’s why immigration law needs to reformed: so farmers and construction companies who abuse, bully, and treat workers badly because they know the illegals have no recourse can be punished and we can allow enough guest workers into the country AND, so some kid brought here against his wishes can be the citizen we need.
Except this young man was not an illiterate non-English speaking defenseless farmer worker or construction worker, was he?
He was well-educated, employed, spoke fluent English and was not defenseless in that he clearly understood how the current immigration system works and opted not to take advantage of it (and his professional resources)and begin the procedure.
Dana (4eca6e) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:48 amneed mechanism
ColonelHaiku (4de8c2) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:52 amto send timmahB off on
ice floe with large bear
Indeed. This person knowingly violated our laws. They are not a victim.
It gets old seeing people cry tears for illegals. What about the American citizen who applied for a journalist job and was displaced? What about the young and poor who want jobs? Sure, some of them are on food stamps now. Wouldn’t it be better to clamp down much harder on illegal immigration and eliminate as much welfare as possible at the same time?
I want a lot of immigration. I just want the people who immigrate to obey the law.
Dustin (b7410e) — 7/22/2011 @ 11:00 am“Yeah, all he has to do is move back to a country he doesn’t know, file some papers and wait ten years and he can come back.”
timb – Talk to all the people in line to immigrate here legally. I’m sure they have no problem with people like Vargas knowingly violating the law to stay in this country.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 7/22/2011 @ 11:12 amAlways wonder about that–He came to a country (US) he knows nothing about at 12… Why can he not go back to his own country (that he apparently knows nothing about?) and apply to the US. Look at it as another cultural learning experience.
After 10 years when he gets approval, the US will be nothing like the country he left either (for better or for worse).
BfC (2ebea6) — 7/22/2011 @ 11:13 amNo kidding, Daley.
It’s hard for the law abiding to immigrate here because others have cut in front of the line. Now we’re supposed to screw the law abiding and welcome into our society people who knowingly break the law?
Why? We can’t let them all in. No country does. There’s a reason the entire world has policies on this. And timb thinks it’s fair to screw the law abiding immigrant?
timb is a shameless partisan hack, and I think he’s bigoted against legitimate immigrants who are less likely to be dependent on democrat welfare programs. He wants to prefer the kind of people who break the law over the kind who don’t.
Dustin (b7410e) — 7/22/2011 @ 11:15 amDustin – timb is a liberal. He has no moral compass.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 7/22/2011 @ 11:18 amI support the version of the DREAM act that supports active duty in the military as a path to citizenship. I always thought the ‘go to college or high school’ part was nowhere near sufficient service to this country (and also insulting to the military to put them at the same level… one is a service and the other is a huge benefit of being here).
If illegals serve six years active duty, honorably, in whatever MOS the military wants them in, I think they have earned citizenship. I wouldn’t want any alternative amnesty path, though. No community service or volunteer work path.
That’s a good way to handle all these people who aren’t here legally, but want to be.
Dustin (b7410e) — 7/22/2011 @ 11:18 amIt’s sad that timb does not have the confidence and belief in this young illegal immigrant to possess the wherewithal to weather the process of becoming a legal citizen.
Personally, I believe the young man smart, industrious and with a strong drive to continually better himself – and succeed – so much so in fact, that not only could he endure the process but he could easily become a beacon of encouragement and strength to others wishing to come out of the shadows.
Dana (4eca6e) — 7/22/2011 @ 11:20 amTimb please stfu.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/22/2011 @ 11:54 amHere is my amazing idea for some rich person (hey, Carlos Slim! Hey Eva Longoria!) who feels for illegal immigrant children:
Start a scholarship fund to pay for kids living illegally here to go to university in their home country.
Upon graduation, they will then have the choice to legally start the legal immigration process as would any other college graduate, or they can stay and improve the situation in their home country.
MayBee (081489) — 7/22/2011 @ 12:01 pmMayBee – That is crazy talk!!!!!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 7/22/2011 @ 12:03 pma new episode
ColonelHaiku (4de8c2) — 7/22/2011 @ 12:09 pmDesp’rate Illegal Housewives
don’t forget TiVo
hey there timmahB
ColonelHaiku (4de8c2) — 7/22/2011 @ 12:10 pmbetter twelve step off, homes or
bust cap in yo ass
Lefty dicators accusing us of being fascist…………..how rich.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/22/2011 @ 12:10 pmHeck fire the dude is a Pulitzer Prize Winning journalist! That should count for something–when he goes back to the Phillipines and starts a journalism career there.
Now if he were a Nobel Prize winning physicist, I might think we should cut him some slack.
But goodness knows, we don’t need more hack journalists–we have too many of the Obama smooching variety here already.
Mike Myers (0e06a9) — 7/22/2011 @ 12:12 pmImelda shoes
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 7/22/2011 @ 12:18 pmneed tongue cleaning now
new job for Vargas
Hey deport the arsehole.
Where are the Che Guevara buttlickers to come to this troubled soul’s defense?
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/22/2011 @ 12:29 pmif the rest of the world wants to send its hard-working, smart people here, then we need a mechanism for them to do so.
We have. It’s called legal immigration. What we should be doing, in addition to keeping out illiterate peasants who will be a drain, is making legal immigration work more efficiently. The INS admitted a couple of years ago that they are opposed to streamlining legal immigration because they relay on the fees paid to be on the waiting list for part of their budget.
Nothing new, Tim, when you just don’t get the point.
Mike K (8f3f19) — 7/22/2011 @ 1:50 pmI’d be happy to make legal immigration easier, if we had serious enforcement against illegal immigration. But its currently easier to stay in this country illegally than legally, as anyone who has tried to navigate the incompetence of the ICE knows.
SPQR (94a0ec) — 7/22/2011 @ 2:06 pmIn another time–the 1890’s through the 1920s– when immigrants were also flooding into the US through Ellis Island there was “a plan” and it was enforced. Immigrants needed to show either that they had the wherewithal to support themselves, or that they had a sponsor such as a citizen relative or an employer for their skills. They were checked for any diseases or conditions that would interfere with their success and/or could infect others–and were immediately turned away back to their home country if they were not healthy. Criminals were not allowed in. Social service organizations (mostly private/religious) helped them assimilate by teaching English and teaching American customs and fashion norms so they could rapidly become Americanized and naturalized and fully partake of the opportunities to live the American Dream.
No porous borders-no sanctuary cities-reasonable profiling. Pro-action obviously so much better than reation/deportation. Compare and contrast:
Congress soon expanded the list of excludable classes, and in doing so made regulation of immigration more complex. As a result, when the Immigration Act of 1891 barred polygamists, persons convicted of crimes of moral turpitude, and those suffering loathsome or contagious diseases from immigrating, it also created the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration. Located within the Treasury Department, the Superintendent oversaw a new corps of U.S. Immigrant Inspectors stationed at the United States’ principal ports of entry. Under the 1891 law, the Federal Government assumed the task of inspecting, admitting, rejecting, and processing all immigrants seeking admission to the United States. The Immigration Service’s first task was to collect arrival manifests (passenger lists) from each incoming ship, a responsibility of the Customs Service since 1820. Enforcing immigration law was a new Federal function, and the 1890s witnessed the Immigration Service’s first attempts to implement national immigration policy. Operations began in New York Harbor at a new Federal immigration station on Ellis Island, which opened January 2, 1892. The largest and busiest station for decades, Ellis Island housed inspection facilities, hearing and detention rooms, hospitals, cafeterias, administrative offices, railroad ticket offices, and representatives of many immigrant aid societies. An “immigrant fund” created from collection of immigrants’ head tax financed the Immigration Service until 1909, when Congress replaced the fund with an annual appropriation.
During its first decade at Ellis Island and other ports, the Immigration Service formalized basic immigration procedures. Inspectors questioned arrivals about their admissibility and noted their admission or rejection on manifest records. Detention Guards and Matrons cared for those people detained pending decisions in their cases or, if the decision was negative, awaiting deportation. Inspectors also served on Boards of Special Inquiry that closely reviewed each exclusion case. Often, aliens were excluded because they lacked funds or had no friends or relatives nearby. In these cases the Board of Special Inquiry usually admitted the person if someone could post bond or one of the immigrant aid societies would take responsibility for the alien. Those denied admission by the Board were deported at the expense of the transportation company that brought the alien to the port.
http://www.uscitizenship.info/ins-usimmigration-insoverview.html
elissa (21ece0) — 7/22/2011 @ 2:19 pmHa ha! What a putz!
Bigfoot (8096f2) — 7/22/2011 @ 2:38 pmthat was going to be my comment…”ha ha”. So he shared a Pulitzer. He’s from the “come out of the shadows” rhetoric camp….Cynical to say that he was launched and groomed for this new-fangled sign-a-pledge “Define America”? I do not need or want him to define America for me, especially when 35M foreign nationals plot their conquest to redefine us at their pleasure….Americans define America…let’s keep it that way, thank you very much!
Imeldadoes'ntlivehere (194534) — 7/22/2011 @ 10:52 pmCome to the states that border with Mexico and you will see that the vast majority coming here illegally are illiterate, non-educated peasants and generally will work at bare subsistence level all their lives. In the meantime they are draining resouces for citizens and legal immigrants while states, such as California, are drowning in debt and legalizing them will provide absolutely NO solution to the problem and only make the situation worse.
HMS (cc1148) — 7/23/2011 @ 12:14 amSo, timb, are you stepping up to the plate to sponsor Vargas to become a citizen? Meaning, provide food, shelter, clothing, medical care and any other thing he requires to keep him off the Government dole? When you agree to do that, for any illegal, then you can complain about how immigration works.
PatAZ (a0589c) — 7/23/2011 @ 1:09 pmP.S. Do you even pay taxes?
He probably does not.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/23/2011 @ 1:24 pmO/T-But Pam Geller has a post about the norwegian shooter having ties to LGF.
Cato the Ogre i’m looking at you.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/23/2011 @ 2:06 pmSue, AFAIK there is no such procedure, except for immediate relatives.
To those saying “go to the back of the line”, be aware that from many countries there is no line, or it’s so long that it may as well not exist.
So what do you expect him to do? Voluntarily self-deport? Would you do that? I very much doubt it. If any of us were in his position, we’d do whatever we could to stay, legally or otherwise. And if any of us were born on the other side of the border, we’d take whatever opportunity came to cross it, and we wouldn’t give a damn about what the law on the American side thought of it. Anyone who thinks he’d voluntarily stay in Mexico or Guatemala and condemn himself to lifelong poverty just because USA law says he should, is fooling himself.
We need border security because an open border is a threat to our safety. We need to keep dangerous people out. But people who are not criminals, and have no hostile intentions to the USA, but on the contrary want to come here and become Americans, are not doing something wrong by evading all our efforts; and if they succeed in joining our economy and society and have done us no harm then it’s unconscionable to throw them out upon discovery.
Milhouse (ab7caa) — 7/24/2011 @ 9:38 amSo? Are they not human because of that? Are they not just as entitled as you or me to the sort of living they can achieve in the USA, and that they can’t where they came from? More importantly, are they not entitled to give their children the opportunity to do better than that? What makes them different from you or me, just because they were born on one side of an arbitrary line and we were born on the other?
Milhouse (ab7caa) — 7/24/2011 @ 9:41 amI’m sure this is racially motivated like that minuteman activist killing two illegals on the orders of a mexican drug cartel.
/Sarcasm off
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/24/2011 @ 10:50 amMilhouse,
People who come here illegally are criminals. People who stay here knowing they are here illegally are criminals. The immigration process is unnecessarily cumbersome and rife with corruption, much like our federal government as a whole. I am saddened at the multitudes of poor in Mexico, India, and throughout the world. That doesn’t mean we can afford to take in everyone who might be better off here.
Reform the immigration process, yes. Ignore it altogether because poor people bother your conscience, no. They may be arbitrary lines and maybe one day they can be erased safely, but that day hasn’t come. Until then, allow people to immigrate legally and deport anyone who subverts the rule of law, no matter how justified it appears in their own minds. Or yours.
Stashiu3 (44da70) — 7/24/2011 @ 11:06 amBest thing for Mexico is for it to not have this relief valve so the corrupt leftists there can escape reform and accountability.
Where is our relief valve? If the hungry and poor flee and overcome every nation, there is no way to fix it. Instead, we should use reasonable means to pressure Mexico into being a lawful place where one can raise a family happily.
That’s the real problem. These isolated sob stories are definitely just a symptom.
Dustin (b7410e) — 7/24/2011 @ 12:24 pmOh yes my poor heart bleeds for the illegals.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/24/2011 @ 3:18 pmNo, Milhouse, they are not “entitled” to anything on this side of that so-called “arbitrary” border. They are costing the citizens of this country billions of dollars each year. You are free to give your money to the poor around the world, just don’t force it on everyone else. We have always been told that the US will be defeated (militarily or economically makes no difference)from within and with people like Milhouse that day is fast approaching.
HMS (cc1148) — 7/24/2011 @ 8:50 pmStashiu, illegal entry into the country is a crime bit remaining here illegally is not. Being dragged across the border as a kid seems like a pretty good defense to any criminal charges in this case. But writing about his illegal statu as criminally stupid.
Then again, did the guy ever cop to being illegal, or did he merely claim to be undocumented? If the latter, WA’s action to revoke his documents seems like the the logical next step.
Xrlq (7ee62c) — 7/25/2011 @ 6:22 amBeing here illegally should be a crime.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/25/2011 @ 7:15 amAre they not just as entitled as you or me to the sort of living they can achieve in the USA, and that they can’t where they came from?
No.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/25/2011 @ 7:16 amCan I echo your No.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/25/2011 @ 8:07 amOn what grounds do you feel more entitled than them? What makes you better than them?
Milhouse (8f4156) — 7/25/2011 @ 11:34 amNever said I was better than them, but an example might be that I’m not breaking the laws of their home country, but they’re breaking the laws of mine. I don’t feel entitled to the benefits of residence in their country, why should they be entitled to the benefits of living here? They should be entitled to seek those benefits legally, not encouraged to steal them from legal residents, both legal immigrants and citizens.
I fail to understand how remaining here illegally (against the law) is not inherently a crime (breaking the law). If that’s the case, they’re not illegal once they’re here? Can you explain it so a non-lawyer can understand? I readily agree that his coming here was not his fault. Remaining here knowingly in an illegal status once he reached adulthood is his fault though.
Stashiu3 (44da70) — 7/25/2011 @ 2:48 pmMilhouse for once we aren’t Illegal.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/26/2011 @ 8:22 amone*
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/27/2011 @ 3:29 pmThe entering/being here illegally as a crime per se distinction is one that the Federal statutes make. Its really a distinction almost without a difference. Crossing illegally is a crime. Overstaying a visa is a crime. But actually being here is not a crime … until you are subject to a deportation order and fail to self-deport. That is then a crime.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/27/2011 @ 3:34 pmStash…it’s a civil violation, the penalty for which is deportation.
AD-RtR/OS! (8b55e2) — 7/27/2011 @ 3:36 pmHowever, multiple offenses (you legal eagles can correct me here where I go wrong) would be evident of a “pattern and practice”, which could be charged as a criminal violation. And, if done in conjunction with other parties, would represent a conspiracy and could be prosecuted under RICO.
But, with a Holder-led DoJ, all of this is strictly conjecture.
Thank you both. I’ll concede he’s not a criminal in the legal sense. Yet. 😉
Stashiu3 (44da70) — 7/27/2011 @ 3:40 pmOh, and Milhouse, I’m not “better” than this guy. I’m just living in my country where I belong …
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/27/2011 @ 3:43 pmHowever, due to his being illegal, he’s committed a slew of felonies while here. Filing false official documents, lying on his tax forms (the required social security number would be fraudulent), lying to the DMV…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 7/27/2011 @ 3:51 pm