More than 11 million immigrants in the United States remain undocumented. In 2010, they contributed more than $11 billion in state and local taxes. According to the Center for Immigrant Studies, more than 774,000 undocumented immigrants have been deported in the past two years.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas shed some light on undocumented immigrant experiences in the U.S. and urged the audience to advocate for the rights of immigrants at the Intersect Leadership and Diversity Conference at Elon University Feb. 22.
“We are living in this age of intersectionality,” Vargas said. “You don’t have to be gay to fight for LGBT rights. You don’t have to be a woman to be a feminist. You don’t have to be Latino or black to care about Latino or black issues.”
According to Vargas, the only way to change the politics of any of these issues is to change the culture surrounding it. Vargas has worked to enact that change through his Define American project and his documentary, “Undocumented,” which will air on CNN this summer.
The Define American Project was created by Vargas to start discussion on the “broken immigration system” and to encourage people to tell their stories.
“Silence is not acceptable anymore,” Vargas said. “Action is necessary.”
Throughout his speech, Vargas used clips from “Undocumented” to show the different views on immigration held by both immigrants and U.S. citizens.
Vargas localized the immigration issue, acknowledging Alamance County sheriff Terry Johnson, whose office was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice under accusations of racial profiling.
“I would love to come back here to show the film,” Vargas said. “And invite the sheriff, perhaps.”
Vargas gained international attention when he decided to speak the truth about his life as an undocumented immigrant in The New York Times Sunday Magazine June 22, 2011.
In the piece, Vargas details how in 1993 his mother sent him to America from the Philippines to live with his grandparents. When he turned 16, he went to the DMV to get his license. The official who looked at the green card told Vargas it was fake and not to come back.
He spent the next 14 years working at media outlets such as the Philadelphia Daily News, The Washington Post and The New Yorker.
Vargas said he was most surprised by the “stunning silence” after he announced his immigrant status. He even called the White House while filming “Undocumented” to ask why he had not been deported.
“I know who you are,” a White House official said to Vargas.