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
