2008 Pulitzer Winner Is an Immigrant

Philippine journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who won the Pulitzer Prize of journalism in 2008 as part of the team of the Washington Post reporters who covered the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007, decided to reveal he has lived for over 18 years in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. After confessing his secret to his editor, he had to leave the Washington Post. 

Vargas came to America in 1993 when he was 12. “My mother wanted to give me a better life. I was sent thousands of miles away to live with my parents in America.” At 16, he discovered that his grandparents had bought their green card or permanent residence card, he decided he “would never give anyone a reason to doubt he was American.” “I convinced myself that if I worked hard and got my goals, I would be rewarded with the citizenship. I felt I could earn it,” said Vargas in his article “My Life as an illegal immigrant,” published by The New York Times.

“It was tough to continue lying. The more I did it, the more I felt like an impostor, the guilt was getting heavier and I was worried about getting caught,” he added.

“There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.We are not always who you think we are. Some pick up strawberries or take care of your children. Others are in high school or college. And some write news stories you could read. I grew up here. This is my home. While I consider myself an American and I believe that America is my country, my country does not consider I belong here.”(MS)

Source: The New York Times, Washington Post