It is a DISGRACE that someone who was brought to the United States as a child, in complete ignorance of his illegal status, should have to suffer in the way that Jose Antonio Vargas has suffered.
It was painful to read this piece, because immigration issues *always* leave me very nervous myself, and though I’ve done my fair share of country-hopping, this stuff never gets easier. It’s not easy when you go the legal route – and I imagine it is a thousand times worse for people who are forced into an scenario that involves anything illegal. People don’t deserve this kind of punishment, and they especially don’t deserve it if they never had control of the issue to begin with. If Jose’s grandfather had shot someone – would we hold little Jose responsible? Why the hell do our laws then make it OK to hold Jose responsible for a bunch of fake documents? Are fake documents worse than murder? Guess they are – if those awful, no good, stealin-mah-job immigrants are involved somehow, right?
A goddamn Pulitzer winner can’t sleep at night, because of just how ass-backward the system is. Priorities. We’re doing them wrong.
Natalia A. 