Jose Antonio Vargas.

• Author: Chang, Jeff
• Position: THE PROGRESSIVE INTERVIEW - Interview

Jose Antonio Vargas has had a good couple of months. In June, he helped bring the immigration debate back into the national spotlight with a cover story for Time magazine on the struggles of undocumented youth. Then came the White House's groundbreaking announcement that deportations of potentially hundreds of thousands of young immigrants would be halted under the "deferred action" program, which offers many young undocumented immigrants a two-year, renewable authorization to work and study here.

The Filipino-born journalist-turned-activist has now been vaulted to the helm of the immigrant rights movement.

He came to the United States on a tourist visa to see his grandparents in Mountain View, California, when he was twelve and never left. He was unaware of his undocumented status until he tried to get his driver's license at the local DMV and found out his papers were fake.

He went on to graduate from high school and college, and built an impressive career in journalism, all the while hiding his legal status. He worked at The Washington Post, where he was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for its coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings.

"On the surface, I've created a good life. I've lived the American dream," he wrote last year in a moving cover article for The New York Times Magazine, where he told his life story and boldly proclaimed he was undocumented.

"Tough as it was, coming out about being gay seemed less daunting than coming out about my legal status," he wrote in the piece. "I kept my other secret mostly hidden."

His journey toward an award-winning career in journalism represents the untapped potential of undocumented youth who are pressing for reforms that would allow them to secure their futures in the country they see as home.

As more stories like Vargas's come to the surface, other undocumented Americans are increasingly emboldened to speak their own truth. Their collective voice is humanizing the politics of immigration and inspiring a new public conversation on what it means to be American. Vargas is advancing this public debate through his social media campaign, Define American.

Jeff Chang spoke to Vargas at an art exhibit at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, California. The event was sponsored by CultureStrike, a grassroots organization of artists, writers, and other creative workers fighting back against anti-immigrant laws and attitudes.

The art exhibit featured the pioneering artist Julio Salgado...