Posted on 06/22/2011 11:04:51 AM PDT by kristinn
Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitizer prize winning reporter who has worked for the Washington Post and Huffington Post, has revealed that he is an illegal alien in a coordinated media push with the New York Times and ABC News seeking amnesty for illegal aliens like him.
Vargas also revealed that he breached White House security by using a fake ID, including when he covered a state dinner. And that a superior at the Washington Post knew and approved of his actions.
Vargas made the revelations in an article he authored published in the upcoming New York Times Sunday Magazine.
Vargas writes that at age 12 he was sent to America from the Philippines by his mother to live with his naturalized American citizen grandparents. His grandfather Lolo, repeatedly broke the law to get Vargas in the U.S. and to keep him here, Vargas writes
One day when I was 16, I rode my bike to the nearby D.M.V. office to get my driver’s permit. Some of my friends already had their licenses, so I figured it was time. But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. “This is fake,” she whispered. “Don’t come back here again.”
Confused and scared, I pedaled home and confronted Lolo. I remember him sitting in the garage, cutting coupons. I dropped my bike and ran over to him, showing him the green card. “Peke ba ito?” I asked in Tagalog. (“Is this fake?”) My grandparents were naturalized American citizens — he worked as a security guard, she as a food server — and they had begun supporting my mother and me financially when I was 3, after my father’s wandering eye and inability to properly provide for us led to my parents’ separation. Lolo was a proud man, and I saw the shame on his face as he told me he purchased the card, along with other fake documents, for me. “Don’t show it to other people,” he warned...
...The “uncle” who brought me here turned out to be a coyote, not a relative, my grandfather later explained. Lolo scraped together enough money — I eventually learned it was $4,500, a huge sum for him — to pay him to smuggle me here under a fake name and fake passport. (I never saw the passport again after the flight and have always assumed that the coyote kept it.) After I arrived in America, Lolo obtained a new fake Filipino passport, in my real name this time, adorned with a fake student visa, in addition to the fraudulent green card.
Using the fake passport, we went to the local Social Security Administration office and applied for a Social Security number and card. It was, I remember, a quick visit. When the card came in the mail, it had my full, real name, but it also clearly stated: “Valid for work only with I.N.S. authorization.”
When I began looking for work, a short time after the D.M.V. incident, my grandfather and I took the Social Security card to Kinko’s, where he covered the “I.N.S. authorization” text with a sliver of white tape. We then made photocopies of the card. At a glance, at least, the copies would look like copies of a regular, unrestricted Social Security card.
Later, with the help of sympathetic teachers, Vargas obtained a drivers license in Oregon using subterfuge and a fake Social Security card.
Vargas parlayed his illegally obtained identification documents into a job at the Washinton Post. He writes he confided in a superior, Peter Perl, who allowed him to continue working at the Post as an illegal alien in violation of the law.
About four months into my job as a reporter for The Post, I began feeling increasingly paranoid, as if I had “illegal immigrant” tattooed on my forehead — and in Washington, of all places, where the debates over immigration seemed never-ending. I was so eager to prove myself that I feared I was annoying some colleagues and editors — and worried that any one of these professional journalists could discover my secret. The anxiety was nearly paralyzing. I decided I had to tell one of the higher-ups about my situation. I turned to Peter.
By this time, Peter, who still works at The Post, had become part of management as the paper’s director of newsroom training and professional development. One afternoon in late October, we walked a couple of blocks to Lafayette Square, across from the White House. Over some 20 minutes, sitting on a bench, I told him everything: the Social Security card, the driver’s license, Pat and Rich, my family.
Peter was shocked. “I understand you 100 times better now,” he said. He told me that I had done the right thing by telling him, and that it was now our shared problem. He said he didn’t want to do anything about it just yet. I had just been hired, he said, and I needed to prove myself. “When you’ve done enough,” he said, “we’ll tell Don and Len together.” (Don Graham is the chairman of The Washington Post Company; Leonard Downie Jr. was then the paper’s executive editor.) A month later, I spent my first Thanksgiving in Washington with Peter and his family.
In the five years that followed, I did my best to “do enough.” I was promoted to staff writer, reported on video-game culture, wrote a series on Washington’s H.I.V./AIDS epidemic and covered the role of technology and social media in the 2008 presidential race. I visited the White House, where I interviewed senior aides and covered a state dinner — and gave the Secret Service the Social Security number I obtained with false documents.
Vargas writes that he explored his legal options when he was younger. When told he would have to leave the U.S. and be banned from returning for ten years, he opted to break the law. Now he is running a propaganda campaign for illegal aliens with help from his friends in the media.
A big concern though, is the security breach at the White House of someone using falsified documents to gain access to the president. Jeff Gannon was crucified by the liberals and the media for using a pseudonym, but not fake documents, when he was a White House reporter. There were calls for Congressional investigations into how Gannon gained access to the White House, even though Gannon used his given name, James Guckert, to obtain clearance to enter the White House.
Vargas' case, however, does cry out for investigations and prosecutions. Who else is in the media isusing fake identification documents to gain access to the White House and the president? Who else has the Washington Post helped to breach government security with fake credentials?
Vargas is rolling out a group called DefineAmerican with which he is campaigning for the DREAM act for illegal aliens. He also has a video clip on YouTube where he makes his case.
Sounds like he broke about a dozen laws, but I guess after you break the first by entering the country illegally, whats a few more? How much you want to be he will never be investigated or prosecuted either.
I recently had to have a background check (ssno, birthdate, etc. for verification) prior to a tour of a bio lab. Evidently the Secret Service never bothered to verify the false ssno provided by this illegal alien reporter. That’s comforting, not!
Is his grandfather still alive? If so arrest his ass.
I’m not impressed with the Secret Service, allowing an illegal in the White House.
I wonder if we can get a list of these “laws” that are more like guidelines.
If it were me in charge, I’d make an example out of him and deport his ass, and throw his grandfather in jail too.
If this is true, the Washington Post and all other organizations that this man has used to enter the White House should be banned from further press corps activity. The Secret Service should also come under Congressional scrutiny for allowing this individual to come into such close and constant contact with the President.
PERIOD.
It’s like the “Pirate Code”.
No you see illegals can’t break our laws because they aren’t here legally; therefore, to hold them accountable they first must be given amnesty.
Yeah that’s the liberal logic.
Vargas, or Obama?
Vargas writes his grandfather is dead. I suppose it would be a bit much to deport a corpse, but it would set a good example.
My humorous comment above aside... Vargas should be arrested and deported. Peter Perl should be arrested and prosecuted for conspiracy to commit fraud and violate security procedures.
The Secret Service also needs to launch an investigation on how they failed to notice the problem with the false documents.
Wow, that is shocking about the Secret Service.
He and his grandfather should be deported immediately.
:: he confided in a superior, Peter Perl, who allowed him to continue working at the Post ::
Peter Perl should be arrested and tried for treason. Lynching might be too good for him if found guilty.
“Fake, but accurate” rules the day!
Let me see if I understand:
The requirement for entering the White House is to hand over a piece of paper that is shaped rectangularly.
Right..?
LOL!
I agree with you, though, there needs to be an investigation about this. As much as I can't stand BO's politics, I don't like the idea that an illegal alien got so close to the man.
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