LOS ANGELES, July 16: Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and activist Jose Antonio Vargas, who revealed in 2011 that he is an undocumented immigrant, has been detained by US border patrol agents, inflaming an already fiery immigration debate.
Campaigners and leaders including the mayor of New York immediately called for the Philippine-born 33-year-old’s release from detention in a Texas border town, some urging President Barack Obama to intervene.
Vargas was in the southern US state to join other lobby groups “to stand in solidarity with and humanise the stories of the children and families fleeing the most dangerous regions of Central America,” the campaign group Define American said.
A high-profile campaigner for the rights of fellow immigrants, he was detained at the airport in McAllen yesterday, where he planned to board a flight to Los Angeles.
“This morning, Vargas attempted to board a plane to Los Angeles… Vargas did not make it through security at the airport,” said Ryan Eller, campaign director of Define American.
“Our understanding is that he is currently being questioned by border patrol,” he added in a statement.
“We are calling on President Obama and (Homeland Security) Secretary (Jeh) Johnson to exercise prosecutorial discretion and immediately release (Vargas) from Customs and Border Protection custody.”
Vargas, quoted in the statement, added: “Our America is better than this – more humane, more compassionate – and we are fighting for a better America: a country we love but has yet to recognise us.”
A spokesman for the US Customs and Border Protection agency, Joe Gutierrez, told AFP: “Yes, we have him in detention,” but declined to give further details.
Vargas, who was part of a Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008, revealed in a 2011 New York Times magazine essay that he was undocumented.
He was 12 years old in 1993 when his young mother put him on a flight in Manila to be raised by his grandparents in California, in the hope he could live the American dream.
What happened since that Times essay is the subject of “Documented,” written, produced and directed by Vargas, which got its world premiere last June.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said border agents had made a mistake.
“I stand in solidarity with journalist and advocate Jose Antonio Vargas – an exemplary man whose tireless work has helped raise awareness around the lives of millions of undocumented immigrants living on American soil,” he said.
US authorities are currently dealing with a surge of unaccompanied and undocumented children coming over the country’s southern borders with Mexico. (AGENCIES)
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