Jose Antonio Vargas Challenges Media To Cover Immigration Better

Jose Antonio Vargas, the journalist who shocked the country when he revealed he was an undocumented immigrant, has challenged the media to cover the debate around immigration more comprehensively.

Vargas, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and former editor at the Huffington Post, made headlines when he came out as an undocumented immigrant this past summer. Now, he aims to take on immigration reform, starting with changing what he believes is the one-dimensional nature of immigration coverage.

On Tuesday, Vargas lamented the media's "familiar story line" about undocumented immigrants: that they "are a drain on the struggling U.S. economy, taking away jobs from native workers and posing a threat to American culture and livelihood."

Vargas spoke with Charles Kenny, who penned a column for Bloomberg Businessweek arguing that hiring an undocumented immigrant is actually good for the U.S. economy. According to Kenny, covering immigration is "frustrating" and "annoying" from all different angles. For one thing, the positive side of illegal immigration is "politically dead in the water," he said, and for another, people often assume that the negative side is true.

Vargas called for focusing more on the stories that the mainstream media has not told, including those about "everyday Good Samaritans" who aid undocumented immigrants, teachers who must deal with the issue in their classrooms and "intersecting lives of undocumented and documented Americans."

Comments

[Joelle Steffen Bonifacio]

09:11 PM on 11/03/2011

nd while it would be nice if everyone had the means to fork over big bucks to the US to come over legally, those illegals you hate so much don't have that kind of money. Their families are starving and you'd throw them in jail for doing their utmost to feed their families. Shame on all of you! From these comments, if you're not from 'round here, then go back where you came from and spend your life in poverty because there's no one here who cares about you. No one here wants a better life for anyone but themselves. We might as well rip the statue of liberty down, because those immortal words no longer apply to this selfish, self-absorbed nation of depressed whiners.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

[Joelle Steffen Bonifacio]

09:10 PM on 11/03/2011

You can scream ILLEGAL all day long, but the fact is, many people do illegal things--like driving over the speed limit, smoking marijuana, or lying on their taxes. When they're caught, sometimes it's a few months of jail, but usually all they have to do is pay some quantity of money and their life is restored. After all, they didn't hurt anyone, right? Same deal here. These illegal criminals haven't hurt anyone. They work, they send money home to their families, the support local business, and if they "stole" your job it is because they do it better than you. But do they get a fine? No, they get a 10-year ban, tearing apart families, ruining lives and careers. This is a justifiable punishment for people who left homes and parents to be able to give a better life to their families?

[Robert SF]

01:04 PM on 10/01/2011

Fortunately, illegals take the jobs Americans refuse to do... like journalism.

[Robert Medina]

11:45 AM on 10/01/2011

Can someone please tell me why Spanish is a second language in the United States.
Can someone please tell me why Puerto Rico a territory and citizens since 1917, there primary language is Spanish, this is after building a universal education system and land grant college, Pell grants and they still speak Spainsh, English, eh.
Can someone say who pushes the Spanish culture?

[kkdkdkdkdk]

01:26 PM on 09/30/2011

Why hasn't he been deported?

[Anne Mccormick]

09:44 PM on 10/02/2011

good question.

[designcreature]

11:45 AM on 09/30/2011

Said it before and say it again...he is entitled to no more leaway than any other person here illegally. As if he didn't know his legal status and now, because he's a bit famous, this is suppose to let him get to the head of the line? Step back, buddy, and wait your turn.

[greyhound2]

10:48 AM on 09/30/2011

He's not an undocumented immigrant, he's an illegal alien. Undocumented immigrant sounds like somebody is just missing some minor paperwork. An illegal alien is knowingly and willfully in violation of the law.

[carrot6]

09:52 AM on 09/30/2011

THis guy has cajones!!!

[AZreb]

09:05 AM on 09/30/2011

Vargas' grndfather lied in order to keep Vargas in the US illegally. Then Vargas himself lied in order to be employed and get a driver's license. Guess the illegal acts don't count if a person "makes it".

[voyager48]

03:38 PM on 09/30/2011

then why is Bernie Madoff in jail and Vargas not? They both committed fraud and perjury!

[davidblanket]

03:51 AM on 09/30/2011

The fact that this ... foreigner ... might have voted in elections ... a sacred privilege, reserved only for US Citizens ... is the biggest crime of all.
Of course everything he did to get there is also a crime ... but Voting?
The nearest tree, or throw away the key.

[davidblanket]

03:01 AM on 09/30/2011

Someone should inform Mr Bigmouth that only US Citizens are protected by the Constitution.
While those that are here legally are extended many of those rights, some are reserved for Citizens only.
All others can very easily be declared "Enemies of the State".
No rights are extended to illegal immigrants.
No free speech, no assembly.
No Social Services.

[theoffcentered]

10:15 PM on 10/01/2011

evrytime you go above the speed limit when driving , everytime you drink a beer or any liquior above the state limit, you are doing something illegal, so you should be punished right so why dont you get punish most of the time because yo dont get cought right , so rest figure it out yourself david blanket besides a withe truck

[edejan]

12:27 AM on 09/30/2011

The whole issue of illegal immigration/legal immigration, stealing jobs/being useful workers....it's all muddied on purpose to keep us confused and focused on issues that are not related to the economy and the crushing of our constitutional rights. The amount of hatred and venom this issue has created is wrong-headed and destructive to our society. If Vargas can use his skills to enlighten all of us in a truthful and sensible way, he deserves to be granted legal status.

[voyager48]

03:40 PM on 09/30/2011

The problem is he has not stopped lying since he got here. What is more he is on a mission to save his own butt by twisting up the law to suit himself so why suddenly is anything he says in any way believable as the truth?

[dsa1115]

10:12 PM on 09/29/2011

Vargas should be arrested and deported immediately.

[Cacey]

09:21 PM on 09/29/2011

The late Bob Novak, a very Conservative columnist, said following Bush's declaration of a War on Terror that one man's freedom fighter was another man's terrorist. Do we forget that our heros, Nathan Hale, Frederick Douglass, Caesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, stood up to established law and won. We will have imigration reform one way or another. Will Vargas be a hero? Time will tell.

[Norski]

01:42 PM on 09/30/2011

Oh what great rationalizations. But Frederick Douglass, Caesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King were all standing up to laws that were not sanctioned by our constitution. And Nathan Hale was standing up for the principle of no taxation without representation. The ability to control immigration has been firmly established constitutionally with multiple cases so it is a completely different situation than was faced by these people.

"one day (we will) live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" - Martin Luther King

Human Beings are capable of rationalizing almost anything into a highest moral imperative. It is easy to read off the roll call of great dictators who have rationalized the most shocking of excess into a semblance of respectability. But to do so they always have to ignore the hurt they perpetuate. Hitler, Stalin, and others just like them also stood up to established law and won.

The road to Hades is as much paved with rationalizations as it is good intentions. Civil disobedience is only a force for positive change if it does not oppress someone else. That is the difference between becoming another King or another Stalin. You cannot glorify those who break the law while ignoring the hurt caused to those who need the law’s protection. You glorify the Illegal Immigrant while ignoring the impact on American Workers and Taxpayers.

[markspence]

06:41 PM on 09/29/2011

Does anyone else think this guy will talk himself right out of the country?