Free Pulitzer Prize Winner From Detention! Take Action – Sign the Petition

Jose Antonio Vargas, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008, has been detained at a Texas airport. We must come together to demand his release now.

When Jose Antonio Vargas was 12, his mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California’s Bay Area. There, Vargas thrived, becoming a “copy boy” for the San Francisco Chronicle before working his way up to eventually win a Pulitzer Prize for his work with the Washington Post. Vargas should be lauded as an example of the great ways people can succeed if they persevere. Instead, Vargas has been detained in an airport in Texas for his documentation status.

Vargas “came out” as an undocumented immigrant in a New York Times Magazine article in 2011. Since then, he’s been traveling around the country to support the millions of undocumented immigrants who struggle to find jobs or housing amid the convoluted American legal system.

And on Tuesday morning, Vargas became another victim of our country’s draconian immigration policy. Des pite flying in the past without an issue, he was put in handcuffs at an airport near a Texas border town.

Like Vargas, the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States aren’t dangerous. They’re only trying to keep their families safe and healthy, just like documented American citizens. Many, like Vargas, came to the country as adolescents; they consider the U.S. their home. Yet they continue to face prejudice, detention and deportation, as if being born in a different nation were a crime.

Vargas’ current plight symbolizes that of millions of people suffering at the hands of the government every day; he must be allowed to go free. Tell Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to release Vargas from custody immediately!

Thank you for taking action,

Kathleen J.
Care2 and ThePetitionSite