Jose Vargas,Reporter who wrote about life as illegal alien arrested in Minn.
Reporter who wrote about life as undocumented immigrant arrested in Minnesota
By Beth Hawkins | 06:14 pm
New York Times reporter Jose Vargas was arrested Friday morning by Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Police and charged with driving without a valid driver’s license, a misdemeanor.
A native of the Philippines, Vargas is best known for his June 2011 essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” in which he described the steps he is forced to take to work in the United States, where he has lived since 1993, when he was 12.
It’s unclear why Vargas was stopped. He is scheduled to appear in Hennepin County District Court Oct. 18.
His arrest here on a traffic violation is newsworthy because the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the county jail, participates in Secure Communities, a Bush administration initiative to secure local law enforcement cooperation in reporting undocumented immigrants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
In response, ICE routinely places deportation holds on undocumented individuals, whether or not the offense they are suspected of merits booking into the jail. Law enforcement participation is voluntary.
According to county records, Vargas was booked into the Hennepin County Jail at 10:49 this morning. Individuals suspected of driving without a license are typically issued a citation at the scene and not arrested or held.
In marked contrast to the way most undocumented immigrants have been handled during Sheriff Rich Stanek’s tenure, Vargas was released at 1:34 Friday afternoon.
Among the steps Vargas enumerated in his Times piece were his efforts to secure a valid driver’s license, something he eventually managed to do in Oregon.
From the essay: “My license, issued in 2003, was set to expire eight years later, on my 30th birthday, on Feb. 3, 2011. I had eight years to succeed professionally, and to hope that some sort of immigration reform would pass in the meantime and allow me to stay.
“It seemed like all the time in the world.”
Several large law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and Illinois’ Cook County, have refused to participate in Secure Communities, the Times reported this morning.
MinnPost learned of Vargas’ arrest after business hours Friday evening; if we are able to reach Vargas or county officials for more details we will update this story.
Reporter who wrote about life as undocumented immigrant arrested in Minnesota | MinnPost
Jose Antonio Vargas Narrowly Avoids ICE Officials
Connor Simpson
5:41 PM ET
The Atlantic Wire
Activist Jose Antonio Vargas was arrested on Friday while in Minnesota and the police reported him to immigration officials, but they declined to issue a detainer that would have seen Vargas handed over to the ICE and possibly deported.
Vargas was arrested for a traffic violation on Friday morning for driving without a valid driver's licence. Vargas was originally pulled over for driving while wearing headphones. Vargas' arrest is notable because, as MinnPost points out, the county he was arrested in regularly participates in the Bush-era immigration initiative Secure Communities:
His arrest here on a traffic violation is newsworthy because the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the county jail, participates in Secure Communities, a Bush administration initiative to secure local law enforcement cooperation in reporting undocumented immigrants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
Minnesota state police officials did report Vargas to ICE. A police spokesman explained to Politico that when the arresting officer ran Vargas' Washington driver's license it came up that it was cancelled, and was flagged for fraudulent activity:
“He did produce a Washington driver’s license” after being pulled over, Roeske said. “When the trooper ran the license, it showed the status [of the license] was canceled. It also indicated there may have been fraudulent activity associated with the license, that’s why [it might have been] canceled. That triggered the trooper to look into that further and contact ICE (U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement).”
The spokesman wouldn't elaborate further on what "fraudulent activity" was associated with Vargas' license. But ICE officials thankfully declined not to take action action against Vargas. Don't drive with your headphones in, kids.
Jose Antonio Vargas Narrowly Avoids ICE Officials - National - The Atlantic Wire
Immigration authorities say they won’t move against journalist who’s in US illegally
By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, October 8, 1:56 PM
MINNEAPOLIS — Immigration authorities said Monday they won’t take action against a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was arrested in Minnesota for driving without a valid license.
Jose Antonio Vargas attracted national attention last year when he revealed that he’s an illegal immigrant. He was scheduled to speak at Carleton College in Northfield last Friday but never made it.
When a state trooper stopped him in Minneapolis for driving with headphones on, Vargas produced a canceled Washington state driver’s license, said Lt. Eric Roeske, a spokesman for the Minnesota State Patrol.
“He did not have a valid license, and the identification he produced when the trooper ran a check on it indicated it was canceled due to some sort of fraudulent activity, so there was some doubt to his actual identity,” Roeske said.
Vargas was booked at the Hennepin County Jail and released on his own recognizance Friday pending a court appearance set for Oct. 18. The State Patrol contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Roeske said, but the federal agency did not block his release.
An ICE spokeswoman in Washington said Monday that the agency intends to leave Vargas alone because he’s not a high priority.
“Mr. Vargas was not arrested by ICE nor did the agency issue a detainer,” Gillian Christensen said in an email statement. “ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of public safety threats, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”
Vargas was part of a Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer in 2008 for coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. The revelation about his immigration status, in an essay published in the New York Times Magazine in June 2011, raised questions about what his former employers knew of his legal status. The Post condemned him for keeping it secret.
Washington state officials canceled Vargas’ driver’ license in July 2011. He wrote in his essay that he obtained it after the Oregon license he used to get his job at the Post expired.
Vargas did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday.
He wrote in his Times essay that his mother sent him from the Philippines to live with grandparents in California in 1993 when he was 12 years old. He wrote that he didn’t find out he was in the country illegally until he applied for a driver’s permit with forged documents.
Vargas now leads an initiative called “Define American,” which campaigns for immigration reform.
Immigration authorities say they won’t move against journalist who’s in US illegally - The Washington Post
ICE Spares Illegal Alien with Fake Green Card, Social Security, Expired License
October 9, 2012
Judicial Watch
An illegal immigrant journalist who has admitted obtaining a fake Social Security, fake green card and fake U.S. passport has been released (and won’t be deported) by the Obama Administration after getting caught driving without a license in Minnesota.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will not deport or take any action against the offender, Jose Antonio Vargas, because the agency doesn’t consider him a “high priority.” A spokeswoman from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offered this explanation in a Minneapolis newspaper covering the story: “ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of public safety threats, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”
Vargas, a native of the Philippines made national headlines last year when he revealed that he is in the U.S. illegally. He quickly became a hero of the open borders movement because he was an award-winning reporter at a mainstream newspaper and claimed to be living the American dream undercover. Vargas’ mother had sent him to the U.S. for a better life at the age 12 and he went on to earn a college degree.
He has admitted, in a personal essay published by a mainstream newspaper, committing fraud by obtaining fake Social Security, a fake green card and a fake U.S. passport. Vargas has also revealed that he got a driver’s license in Oregon, even though he did not live there, because the state has less stringent requirements. He also got a Washington State driver’s license that eventually got revoked.
When a Minnesota State Patrol pulled Vargas over last week he had an invalid driver’s license, according to a local news report. The trooper pulled Vargas over for driving on an interstate highway with headphones in his ears. When the officer discovered that fraud led to the cancellation of Vargas’ Washington license he notified federal immigration authorities. The rental car Vargas was driving got towed and he got arrested. Three hours later he was released.
Vargas has been charged with a misdemeanor and is scheduled to appear in Hennepin County District court later this month. When word got out about the administration’s handling of the case, the mainstream media rejoiced. One major newspaper, the same one that published Vargas’ essay last year, referred to him as a “prominent immigrant rights advocate.”
This sort of selective enforcement of federal immigration laws is par for the course for the administration. Earlier this year, the president signed an order to spare nearly 1 million young illegal immigrants (“brought to the United States through no fault of their own as children”) from deportation. Last year the administration halted the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants with no criminal records.
ICE Spares Illegal Alien with Fake Green Card, Social Security, Expired License | Judicial Watch
