A Journalist Without Papers

SAN DIEGO -- Jose Antonio Vargas is one of the most well-known illegal immigrants in the country. But what he wants you to know is that he is first and foremost a journalist.

"People say I'm an advocate and an activist," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm a journalist who is trying to tell the fullest story I possibly can."

Last year, the 31-year-old native of the Philippines became the story when he went public with his undocumented status. At the time, I criticized him for making the difficult job of minority journalists who are thought to have hidden agendas even more difficult by keeping his secret. While some within the inside-the-Beltway press corps seemed to suggest that Vargas -- because he was a professional -- shouldn't be deported, I argued that he should have been.

Recently, Vargas and I had the chance to clear the air.

"I hope you don't think that I take away something from journalism," he told me. "This is my church, the one that I've been praying to since I found out that I was 'illegal' and not supposed to be here. Being a journalist means so much to me. I wear it with pride. It's why I feel such a responsibility to tell the immigration story in full."

He should be proud. Vargas was part of a Washington Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for covering the breaking story of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007. He is a good storyteller who, he is quick to point out, had a reporting life before coming out as undocumented last year in an essay for The New York Times Magazine.

Now he wants to challenge other members of the media: "As journalists, we have so many things to cover, so much information, so many things to do. But collectively, I do not think that we have told the complete immigration story."

That includes me. After my column ran, Vargas "friended" me on Facebook and suggested we talk. Only several months later did he agree to a formal interview.

It gave him a chance to reflect.

"There are times that I wish I wasn't this person, that I was just reporting on this person," he said. "It would make it easier. I do think I am a pretty good journalist, and it's my job to tell the whole immigration story and report the hell out of it."

I asked him what we would say to those who worry that every time we propose giving something to illegal immigrants -- in-state college tuition, hospital care, driver's licenses, the DREAM Act, earned legal status, etc. -- we chip away at what it means to be an American.

"We get a driver's license not because we think we're better than you or we want to be equal to you," he said. "We get a driver's license because we have to go to work, to drop off the kids at school, to go to the market. I say to those people, 'I am not taking a slice of your pie, I am actually making the whole pie bigger.' Undocumented Americans make the pie bigger for everyone."

You heard right. "Undocumented Americans." Are you ready to add that phrase to your lexicon? Some would consider it a contradiction in terms. After all, how can you be an American if you're undocumented?

"You can call me illegal," Vargas explained. "You can call me an illegal alien. You call me whatever you want. But I grew up here. This is my home. This country has given a lot to me, and I want to give back to it. I am an American. So why don't we start with that?"

It was to sort through difficult questions of identity and nationality that Vargas recently founded Define American, an organization that wants to elevate the immigration debate and come up with solutions to break the stalemate.

It may be an occupational hazard, but Vargas never stops asking questions. "People focus so much on the fact that I don't have my papers, and they never ask 'the why' and 'the how.' Why is this happening? How is this happening? As a journalist, that's what I'm most interested in."

Right again. Instead of always yelling at each other and complaining about illegal immigration, it's time for Americans to ask "the why" and "the how." Until we do, we'll never find a solution to this problem.

========

Ruben Navarrette's e-mail address is ruben(at symbol)rubennavarrette.com