WASHINGTON — A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who became a crusader for immigration reform after entering the US illegally as a child was detained by Texas Border Patrol agents for eight hours before being released Tuesday.
Jose Antonio Vargas was arrested while attempting to go through airport security at the McAllen, Texas, airport, according to an immigration advocacy group he founded.
The group, Define American, posted a grainy picture of Vargas in handcuffs — sparking an instant social-media campaign to get him freed.
Mayor de Blasio quickly signed on and demanded Vargas be let go. “He exemplifies what America is about,” Hizzoner declared.
The White House, facing another immigration embarrassment, tried to steer clear of the incident.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said he had “no reaction to his [Vargas’] detention.”
But hours later, Vargas was released on his own recognizance and ordered to appear before an immigration judge at a later date.
“As an unaccompanied child migrant myself, I came to McAllen, Texas, to shed a light on children who parts of America and many in the news media are actively turning their backs on,” Vargas said in a statement after his release.
Here’s a photo of @joseiswriting in handcuffs, because the Border Patrol has nothing more pressing to do apparently pic.twitter.com/dN8KewqeZr
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) July 15, 2014
“I want to thank everyone who stands by me and the undocumented immigrants of south Texas and across the country. Our daily lives are filled with fear in simple acts such as getting on an airplane to go home to our family.”
Vargas was arrested after making a series of public statements that he might get trapped on the border.
Vargas, 33, is a former Washington Post reporter who shared the Pulitzer in 2008 for coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings.
A Filipino immigrant, Vargas has lived in the US without proper documents since he was brought here 21 years ago at the age of 12.
In 2011, he “came out” in a New York Times essay as someone who has been living with bogus documents in the US since 1993.
Vargas learned the truth from his family when he turned 16 and was turned away for a driver’s license when a DMV clerk called his green card a fake.
He went on to graduate high school and college, but kept his secret from employers as he worked his way to the Washington Post in 2004.
Vargas has since become been one of the best-known advocates for immigration reform. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 2012 under the headline “We are Americans, Just Not Legally.”
He was returning from a vigil along the Rio Grande to call attention to the rights of Central American children who have sought refuge in the United States.
In an article for Politico published July 11, Vargas admitted he was heading for trouble in the Rio Grande Valley since he doesn’t have a single US-government ID.
“In the last 24 hours I realize that, for an undocumented immigrant like me, getting out of a border town in Texas — by plane or by land — won’t be easy. It might, in fact, be impossible,” Vargas wrote.
Moments before his detention, Vargas predicted he might not be allowed to fly out.
“About to go thru security at McAllen Airport,” Vargas wrote Tuesday morning. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”