Jose Antonio Vargas, Jan. 19, 2025 – How I Bought “Authorized” After 31 Years as an Undocumented American
[Spoiler Alert: He got an O-1 visa and a (d)(3) waiver!]
“On Christmas night time, for the primary time since arriving in California on August 3, 1993, I left america, crossing the border into Mexico for an interview on the U.S. consulate in Tijuana. After residing as an undocumented immigrant for 31 years, I lastly had an opportunity at a visa. There was no assure that I might be authorized. I packed for a visit that will final days, per week or two, perhaps months, not precisely figuring out easy methods to pack for the worst case situation. As I waited for a number of days after the interview, I used to be flooded with feelings and questions: What’s residence? Who am I with out America? What if American citizenship is now not my objective? In these hours of grilling myself, I noticed — my work is world. I wish to inform the tales of migrants re-shaping the Western world. Being undocumented shouldn’t be an identification to me — it’s a situation. Greater than the rest — greater than being homosexual, greater than being Filipino — I establish as a human being who occurs to be a journalist. Being a journalist is how I make sense of the world round me and my place in it. And I can’t consider a extra essential time to be a journalist, chronicling this defining challenge of migration. Watch the complete video to search out out what occurred subsequent.”
