US immigration lawyer: Jose Antonio Vargas will not be deported

An official of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) thinks it is highly unlikely that Filipino Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas will be deported.In an interview with Henni Espinosa on Balitang America, AILA immediate past president David Leopold said, “Jose Vargas is the kind of person that we want in America.”

Vargas, who earned a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team that covered the Virginia Tech shootings, earlier exposed himself as an illegal immigrant in the United States.Vargas had revealed in a New York Times essay that he has been living as an illegal immigrant in the US for almost two decades.

Meanwhile, deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told Radio dzRB that Malacanang is ready to assist Vargas. She said that Palace officials have communicated with the Department of Foreign Affairs upon learning of Vargas' situation.She said, however, that Vargas has yet to ask for DFA's help.It seems, however, that the US will not just let go of Vargas.

“He has worked hard, he’s adding to the social fabric and culture,” Leopold added. “He’s become an excellent writer and he’s had a promising career.”Leopold said that Vargas may be subject to some civil penalties, but doubts that criminal charges can be filed against the journalist.“To falsely claim citizenship is a violation. I wouldn’t think there would be any kind of criminal sanctions,” he said.

New Rosa Parks

For Leopold, Vargas can be this generation’s Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist in the 1950s and 60s. Parks had helped spark the civil rights movement when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man.“When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, she was breaking a law. She was breaking a criminal law in Alabama at the time,” Leopold explained.

“The truth is sometimes, people have to break the law, and they can’t avoid breaking the law.”Leopold said that the law that Parks broke was wrong, and similarly, the immigration law in the United States needs fixing as well.

“It will continue to trap people like Jose Vargas. We need to focus on fixing it, not on punishing people,” he added.Leopold said that if Vargas asked AILA for help, the organization will find help for him.

“He hasn’t asked, he is not represented by me or anyone I know of in AILA,” Leopold said. “Hopefully he will be represented by a competent immigration attorney.”