Jose Antonio Vargas Quotes
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I am not a lobbyist. I am not a political activist. I am not a leader, as far as I'm concerned.
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I think everybody could agree that our immigration system is broken. We have not told the truth about it.
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A broken immigration system means broken families and broken lives.
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I think the hardest stories we tell are always the ones about ourselves. And as a journalist, I was taught that I'm never supposed to put myself in the story. So I spent what, 11, 12 years of my life writing about other people so I don't have to face my own life.
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On the surface, I've created a good life. I've lived the American dream. But I am still an undocumented immigrant.
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I've always really wanted to make a film on what it means to be white in a country that's getting less and less white.
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My being gay is not a social issue; it's a fact. It's not something to be debated. It's a reality.
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All I've ever done since I was 17 is tell stories. You know, I'm a storyteller. And that's what I'm going to keep on doing, especially now, kind of embracing and making sure that we tell immigration.
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I think everyone deserves dignity.
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It's not my job to worry about how Left, Right will react to something. My job is, am I creating something that connects people? That's my job.
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I can't marry my way into citizenship like straight people can. I can get married in the state of New York where I live, but because of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government, which hands out visas, won't recognize my marriage.
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Everyone has an opinion when it comes to immigration - strong, intense opinions.
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When you're undocumented, you're supposed to keep your head down and be quiet and pay taxes, social security - even though people don't know that we do those things - and not say anything.
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When I'm writing, I can always play around with tense. I can always make past present. I can always kind of manipulate, and I can always be delusional in a way that's completely self-serving. With film, it's like, the camera can't really lie. It can manipulate to a certain extent.
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Laws are getting passed in states like Alabama that basically would punish American citizens who are 'harboring' people. Since the federal government hasn't been able to muster or to get comprehensive immigration reform passed, states are taking it upon themselves to police and enforce laws.
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Left-leaning bloggers have had a tremendous impact on the Democratic Party.
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Demographically speaking, young white people are not in the majority in this country; they're in the minority. My question is, if they're not the majority anymore, then what happens? How do things change? Or do they change at all?
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In 2007, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would become a 'platform,' meaning that outside developers could start creating applications that would run inside the site. It worked.
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I've been uncomfortable dealing with my identity since I was 16 years old.
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Undocumented people get arrested all the time. I get arrested, and it's front-page news. I feel guilt.
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When I was younger, I didn't understand how a mother could put her son on a plane and just say, you know, 'Here you go, I'll see you later.' And she never followed, she never came.
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When it comes to fighting for citizenship that many people take for granted, there isn't anyone I would not talk to. When it comes to immigration, there isn't any question I will not answer.
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I'm more than willing to go to places and talk to people who believe that I am an illegal alien who deserves to be jailed. I want to look them in the eye and say, 'What makes you think I'm any different from you?' I think for our generation, immigration rights is a civil rights issue.
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The story of undocumented immigrants in this country is not just about undocumented immigrants. It's about the country as a whole, and it's about us being able to tell the truth about where we are with this issue because we haven't been telling the truth about where we are with this issue.