September 18, 2013

The Shorthorn: I want to disrupt what you think

media mention

(Original Post)

Posted: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 12:45 am | Updated: 1:50 am, Wed Sep 18, 2013.
Lindsey Juarez The Shorthorn staff
 teenage boy rode his bicycle to the DMV 16 years ago to get what many teenage boys dream of having: a driver’s license. The boy with jet black hair and olive eyes stood patiently in line until it was his turn to show the woman at the counter his green card, his proof that he was a resident and could get a license.
The woman at the counter took one look at the boy’s green card and handed it back to him. It was a false document. She told him not to come back.
All the boy could feel was shock and disbelief. He raced home on his bicycle and confronted his grandfather. As he spoke with his grandfather, questions swirled through the boy’s head. “What do you mean my green card is fake? What do you mean my passport is fake?”
That was the day Jose Vargas discovered he was an undocumented immigrant. His grandparents bought him a falsified green card and other documents when his mother in the Philippines had him smuggled into the United States at 12 years old.
For the last 20 years, Vargas has lived in the United States, his life has been full of irony.
With his fake documents, he was able to obtain a real social security number. He began a career in journalism, a field established on telling the truth, by lying about his immigration status. Now, after revealing his status through a New York Times essay in 2011, Vargas is the face of undocumented immigrants, though he says he loathes the thought of being placed on a pedestal.
Vargas, who is the first guest in the Maverick Speakers Series starting Sept. 24, said he wants to have a conversation with UTA students, especially those against immigration reform, about the issues with immigration policies and the misconceptions of undocumented immigrants.
“My goal has been to kind of disrupt what you think of immigration and what you think of people like me,” Vargas said.
The question
Vargas can’t count the number of times he’s been asked, “Why don’t you make yourself legal?”
The question underscores people’s lack of understanding of the citizenship process, he said.
“For many Americans, they think I can just show up at a building, fill out a form and then be done with it,” Vargas said.
In fact, there are multiple steps applicants must take to become U.S. citizens. The process is called naturalization, or the manner in which a person not born in the United States voluntarily becomes a citizen, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Applicants must submit an application for naturalization along with a $595 fee, two passport-style photographs and other documents to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Applicants will then receive two appointments: one to get fingerprints taken and another for an interview on the application and the applicant’s background.
The last step is to take an English and civics test before applicants receive their case status. If they are approved, applicants will take the Oath of Allegiance and receive the Certificate of Naturalization.
Before that process begins, applicants must meet certain requirements, which Vargas does not meet. He has attempted to become a citizen several times, including meeting with an immigration lawyer when he was in college. The lawyer told him he would have to return to the Philippines and accept a 10-year ban before returning to the United States legally, Vargas wrote in his essay.
John Rodriguez, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice, said he knows several students who met with immigration lawyers for their cases and sometimes those lawyers are baffled by the immigration laws. Students say there are many barriers to obtaining citizenship because of the different documents, requirements and having to leave the country for a certain amount of time.
“I have heard that sometimes it’s easier just to come here undocumented because of all the barriers that you go through and all the money that you spend trying to get citizenship in this country,” Rodriguez said.
The citizenship process can sometimes get backlogged depending on what an immigrant is applying for, Rodriguez says. It can take up to 20 years if an immigrant gets a green card, applies for citizenship and then leaves the country as required, he said.
Vargas said he would become a citizen if he could.
“No matter how many times a politician said that people like me should get in the back of the line, where’s the line? If there was a line, that’s where I would be,” Vargas said.
Not being a citizen also affects Vargas’s family. He has not seen his mother in the Philippines since he came to America 20 years ago, he said. As an undocumented immigrant, Vargas can’t obtain a passport.
“I haven’t seen my mom, and I want to see her,” he said. “I really want a passport. I want a passport that would allow me to travel the world.”
A new immigration reform act could allow Vargas to apply for citizenship. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act would allow immigrants who came into the country before they were 16 years old to immediately apply for citizenship and qualify for in-state tuition and federal loans.
The bill was passed by the U.S. Senate during the summer and has gone to the House of Representatives.
“I have seen college students literally cry because this opens up a whole new avenue for them as far as work and being able to support their families, being able to stay in this country permanently,” Rodriguez said.
The conflict
Nathan Bassetto remembers making multiple trips as a child to the U.S. consulate in Brazil. Though Bassetto was born a U.S. citizen, his parents were not.
His parents went through the process as they were instructed and gained citizenship status a few years ago, he said.
“They went to their interviews. They met the time guidelines. They did everything by the book,” said Bassetto, the UTA College Republicans chairman.
The path wasn’t easy, Bassetto said, because his parents couldn’t work in the United States as students applying for citizenship. Some immigrants do not follow the process that his parents did and sometimes break the law to live in the country, Bassetto said.
“The true way, the honest way, is much more difficult,” he said. “I feel that illegal immigrants, they cheat the system and they take advantage.”
Bassetto said he does not have a problem with immigrants in general, but he does not agree with some immigrants breaking the law or attending college when they don’t have legal status.
“I guarantee, a lot of those students are on federal financial aid, and that’s not fair to people who pay their taxes for them to be paying for people who aren’t even supposed to be here,” he said.
Vargas did receive a scholarship to pay for tuition, lodging and books at San Francisco State University, he wrote in his essay. The scholarship was one of the few he could apply for that didn’t require a certain immigration status.
Vargas has been paying taxes with his social security number since he was 18 years old, he said. It’s estimated that undocumented immigrants paid $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Vargas also pays for his medical expenses, though he’s unemployed and doesn’t have health insurance. He was taken to the ER several months ago for an allergic reaction to medication. While he was waiting in the hospital, he decided to make a point via social media.
“I remember sitting in the ER and posting on my Facebook wall, ‘I’m in the ER right now, and I’m paying for this out of my pocket,’ ” Vargas said.
Still, the illegal status of Vargas and some other immigrants bothers Bassetto.
“There is a legal procedure, and laws are laws,” Bassetto said. “That’s why we have them in place. They’re not meant to be broken, they’re not meant to be bent. They’re there to protect us, protect U.S. citizens and U.S. residents.”
The conversation
“Immigration for me is the most controversial and yet the least understood issue in America,” Vargas said. “People just don’t know how the immigration process works.”
Vargas has looked to start a conversation on immigration by founding Define American, an organization that addresses immigration issues.
He is also finishing work on a documentary called “Documented,” which shows Vargas’s journey as an undocumented immigrant. He plans to show clips from his documentary at the Maverick Speakers Series lecture.
Vargas hopes many of UTA’s undocumented students attend his lecture, he said. UTA had 427 undocumented students in fiscal year 2011, which is the latest year the numbers are available, said Dominic Chavez, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board spokesperson.
“I think his story is needed,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a story of struggle. It’s a story of discrimination. It’s a story of a long process that many of the students here on this campus who come here undocumented or with green cards or visas need to hear so that they can be able to identify with someone who made it.”
Vargas also hopes to meet those who disagree with undocumented immigrants to get their perspective.
Bassetto said he plans to attend the lecture to compare viewpoints, though he wants students to know the reasons both for and against immigration reform.
“I want people to be educated, but it has to be on both sides,” Bassetto said. “With this, you’re only getting one side. He’s an illegal immigrant and for him, a lot of what he does is off of emotion.”
One of Vargas’s goals is to make people understand why he still lives in the United States, even though he is here illegally.
“I am just trying to use this very specific story to provide a more universal truth, to speak to a greater universal truth,” he said.
@LindseyJuarez
[email protected]

Posted: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 12:45 am | Updated: 1:50 am, Wed Sep 18, 2013.

Lindsey Juarez The Shorthorn staff

A teenage boy rode his bicycle to the DMV 16 years ago to get what many teenage boys dream of having: a driver’s license. The boy with jet black hair and olive eyes stood patiently in line until it was his turn to show the woman at the counter his green card, his proof that he was a resident and could get a license.

The woman at the counter took one look at the boy’s green card and handed it back to him. It was a false document. She told him not to come back.

All the boy could feel was shock and disbelief. He raced home on his bicycle and confronted his grandfather. As he spoke with his grandfather, questions swirled through the boy’s head. “What do you mean my green card is fake? What do you mean my passport is fake?”

That was the day Jose Vargas discovered he was an undocumented immigrant. His grandparents bought him a falsified green card and other documents when his mother in the Philippines had him smuggled into the United States at 12 years old.

For the last 20 years, Vargas has lived in the United States, his life has been full of irony.

With his fake documents, he was able to obtain a real social security number. He began a career in journalism, a field established on telling the truth, by lying about his immigration status. Now, after revealing his status through a New York Times essay in 2011, Vargas is the face of undocumented immigrants, though he says he loathes the thought of being placed on a pedestal.

Vargas, who is the first guest in the Maverick Speakers Series starting Sept. 24, said he wants to have a conversation with UTA students, especially those against immigration reform, about the issues with immigration policies and the misconceptions of undocumented immigrants.

“My goal has been to kind of disrupt what you think of immigration and what you think of people like me,” Vargas said.

The question

Vargas can’t count the number of times he’s been asked, “Why don’t you make yourself legal?”

The question underscores people’s lack of understanding of the citizenship process, he said.

“For many Americans, they think I can just show up at a building, fill out a form and then be done with it,” Vargas said.

In fact, there are multiple steps applicants must take to become U.S. citizens. The process is called naturalization, or the manner in which a person not born in the United States voluntarily becomes a citizen, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Applicants must submit an application for naturalization along with a $595 fee, two passport-style photographs and other documents to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Applicants will then receive two appointments: one to get fingerprints taken and another for an interview on the application and the applicant’s background.

The last step is to take an English and civics test before applicants receive their case status. If they are approved, applicants will take the Oath of Allegiance and receive the Certificate of Naturalization.

Before that process begins, applicants must meet certain requirements, which Vargas does not meet. He has attempted to become a citizen several times, including meeting with an immigration lawyer when he was in college. The lawyer told him he would have to return to the Philippines and accept a 10-year ban before returning to the United States legally, Vargas wrote in his essay.

John Rodriguez, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice, said he knows several students who met with immigration lawyers for their cases and sometimes those lawyers are baffled by the immigration laws. Students say there are many barriers to obtaining citizenship because of the different documents, requirements and having to leave the country for a certain amount of time.

“I have heard that sometimes it’s easier just to come here undocumented because of all the barriers that you go through and all the money that you spend trying to get citizenship in this country,” Rodriguez said.

The citizenship process can sometimes get backlogged depending on what an immigrant is applying for, Rodriguez says. It can take up to 20 years if an immigrant gets a green card, applies for citizenship and then leaves the country as required, he said.

Vargas said he would become a citizen if he could.

“No matter how many times a politician said that people like me should get in the back of the line, where’s the line? If there was a line, that’s where I would be,” Vargas said.

Not being a citizen also affects Vargas’s family. He has not seen his mother in the Philippines since he came to America 20 years ago, he said. As an undocumented immigrant, Vargas can’t obtain a passport.

“I haven’t seen my mom, and I want to see her,” he said. “I really want a passport. I want a passport that would allow me to travel the world.”

A new immigration reform act could allow Vargas to apply for citizenship. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act would allow immigrants who came into the country before they were 16 years old to immediately apply for citizenship and qualify for in-state tuition and federal loans.

The bill was passed by the U.S. Senate during the summer and has gone to the House of Representatives.

“I have seen college students literally cry because this opens up a whole new avenue for them as far as work and being able to support their families, being able to stay in this country permanently,” Rodriguez said.

The conflict

Nathan Bassetto remembers making multiple trips as a child to the U.S. consulate in Brazil. Though Bassetto was born a U.S. citizen, his parents were not.

His parents went through the process as they were instructed and gained citizenship status a few years ago, he said.

“They went to their interviews. They met the time guidelines. They did everything by the book,” said Bassetto, the UTA College Republicans chairman.

The path wasn’t easy, Bassetto said, because his parents couldn’t work in the United States as students applying for citizenship. Some immigrants do not follow the process that his parents did and sometimes break the law to live in the country, Bassetto said.

“The true way, the honest way, is much more difficult,” he said. “I feel that illegal immigrants, they cheat the system and they take advantage.”

Bassetto said he does not have a problem with immigrants in general, but he does not agree with some immigrants breaking the law or attending college when they don’t have legal status.

“I guarantee, a lot of those students are on federal financial aid, and that’s not fair to people who pay their taxes for them to be paying for people who aren’t even supposed to be here,” he said.

Vargas did receive a scholarship to pay for tuition, lodging and books at San Francisco State University, he wrote in his essay. The scholarship was one of the few he could apply for that didn’t require a certain immigration status.

Vargas has been paying taxes with his social security number since he was 18 years old, he said. It’s estimated that undocumented immigrants paid $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Vargas also pays for his medical expenses, though he’s unemployed and doesn’t have health insurance. He was taken to the ER several months ago for an allergic reaction to medication. While he was waiting in the hospital, he decided to make a point via social media.

“I remember sitting in the ER and posting on my Facebook wall, ‘I’m in the ER right now, and I’m paying for this out of my pocket,’ ” Vargas said.

Still, the illegal status of Vargas and some other immigrants bothers Bassetto.

“There is a legal procedure, and laws are laws,” Bassetto said. “That’s why we have them in place. They’re not meant to be broken, they’re not meant to be bent. They’re there to protect us, protect U.S. citizens and U.S. residents.”

The conversation

“Immigration for me is the most controversial and yet the least understood issue in America,” Vargas said. “People just don’t know how the immigration process works.”

Vargas has looked to start a conversation on immigration by founding Define American, an organization that addresses immigration issues.

He is also finishing work on a documentary called “Documented,” which shows Vargas’s journey as an undocumented immigrant. He plans to show clips from his documentary at the Maverick Speakers Series lecture.

Vargas hopes many of UTA’s undocumented students attend his lecture, he said. UTA had 427 undocumented students in fiscal year 2011, which is the latest year the numbers are available, said Dominic Chavez, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board spokesperson.

“I think his story is needed,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a story of struggle. It’s a story of discrimination. It’s a story of a long process that many of the students here on this campus who come here undocumented or with green cards or visas need to hear so that they can be able to identify with someone who made it.”

Vargas also hopes to meet those who disagree with undocumented immigrants to get their perspective.

Bassetto said he plans to attend the lecture to compare viewpoints, though he wants students to know the reasons both for and against immigration reform.

“I want people to be educated, but it has to be on both sides,” Bassetto said. “With this, you’re only getting one side. He’s an illegal immigrant and for him, a lot of what he does is off of emotion.”

One of Vargas’s goals is to make people understand why he still lives in the United States, even though he is here illegally.

“I am just trying to use this very specific story to provide a more universal truth, to speak to a greater universal truth,” he said.

@LindseyJuarez

[email protected]

 


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