Journalist says he's an illegal immigrant

For almost 14 years, Jose Antonio Vargas carried a secret. A journalist skilled in getting information, he withheld important news from his U.S. employers: He is an illegal immigrant.

A Philippines native, Vargas came to the United States at age 12 and never established legal status, although he now carries a Washington state driver's license.

He says he discovered his illegal standing when he applied for a driver's permit as a teenager in California. He kept the secret while employed with a series of news organizations, including The Washington Post, where he became part of a team of reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Vargas, 30, revealed his personal story Wednesday in perhaps the most public way possible — via a 4,000-word account in The New York Times' Sunday magazine and companion interviews with ABC News, which will air his story Thursday and Friday.

"I'm done running. I'm exhausted," he wrote in the essay posted online. "I don't want that life anymore."

After California turned him away for a driver's permit at age 16, Vargas says his grandfather admitted purchasing the green card and other fake documents.

Vargas convinced himself that, if he worked hard enough and achieved enough, he would be rewarded with citizenship, he wrote in the magazine piece. College seemed out of reach, he said, but his high-school principal and the school superintendent became mentors and surrogate parents, finding a scholarship fund that allowed him to attend San Francisco State University.

Vargas was hired for internships at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News. He was denied an internship at The Seattle Times because he didn't have the proper documents. But he received an offer from The Washington Post.

Because a driver's license was required, Vargas said his network of mentors helped him get one from Oregon, which had less stringent requirements than other states.

Vargas eventually shared his illegal status with his Post mentor, Peter Perl, now the newspaper's training director. Perl told him that, once he had accomplished more, they would tell then-Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Post Chairman Don Graham. Vargas and Perl kept the secret until Vargas left the paper.

On Wednesday, Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti condemned their actions.

Vargas went on to work for the Huffington Post and landed an exclusive interview in September with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that was published by The New Yorker.

Until last week, Vargas' coming-out piece was scheduled to run in The Washington Post, but executive editor Marcus Brauchli said he killed it days before it was to be published. Vargas took the article to The New York Times, which quickly agreed to feature it in its magazine.

Brauchli declined to discuss reasons for spiking Vargas' account.

Vargas said he was worried professionally about a looming deadline: the expiration of his 8-year-old Oregon driver's license. That's why he obtained a Washington state license, which would have given him a five-year reprieve — and meant five more years of lying. He said he couldn't deal with that.

The Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) opened an investigation Wednesday after learning about Vargas.

He presented the Oregon driver's license and a valid Social Security number when he applied, DOL spokeswoman Christine Anthony said. His license lists an address in Seattle's Northgate area.

The department could take a range of actions from canceling Vargas' license to doing nothing, Anthony said.

"Since legal presence isn't a requirement in our state," she said, "we wouldn't be concerned about that part, but we would be concerned about fraudulent documents."

Applicants are not asked if they're in the country legally.

Matthew Walker, an owner of the Seattle home listed on Vargas' license, said he's a longtime friend of the journalist. Walker said Vargas, who was traveling a lot as a reporter, asked months ago if he could list the home as a residence.

"We said that would be fine," Walker said. "That enabled him to get a driver's license as well, as far as I understand.

"We were aware of his situation. He told us about all the different legal steps he was following. He had attorneys. He was working with the U.S. government to try and establish and get his citizenship. We were trying to help him in that process."

Vargas said he was putting himself at risk of deportation by publicly acknowledging his status because it was important to highlight the plight of millions of illegal immigrants.

Vargas, who has started an advocacy group, Define American, is promoting passage of the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would grant permanent residency to young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as minors.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Cori Bassett would not comment specifically on Vargas' case Wednesday but said the agency prioritizes cases that pose the most significant threat to public safety.

William Perez, a Claremont Graduate University professor who has written about the DREAM Act, said "coming out" as an illegal immigrant can provide some protection for a young person facing deportation by drumming up support and public outcry. It also raises awareness that many in the same situation would have to go back to their countries and start the process from scratch, which could take years.

"They're frustrated because they have the preparation, they have the skills and they have no options," Perez said. "So for them, this is one of the few remaining options to try to influence national policies."

Compiled from The Washington Post, The Associated Press and reports by Seattle Times staff reporter Andrew Garber and researcher David Turim.