In 1993, Jose Antonio Vargas boarded a plane in the Philippines with a man who claimed to be his uncle. Then just 12 years old, Vargas waved farewell to his mother and soon landed in the United States, where he went to live with his grandparents in California.
As he explained in his 2011 New York Times Magazine piece, Vargas didn’t learn his immigration status until he tried to get his driver’s license at the age of 16. Vargas kept his secret for 15 years, until, as he wrote, he became tired of “lying to people I respect and institutions that trusted me, of running away from who I am.”
“I’m done running,” Jose wrote in the Times. “I’m exhausted. I don’t want that life anymore.”
Vargas has become an immigration reform activist, lobbying Congress on the DREAM Act and a range of other issues. His latest project is a new documentary that examines his own immigration story, from his childhood in the Philippines through today. The film, “Documented,” premieres tonight at the American Film Institute’s documentary film festival in Washington, D.C.
He joins The Takeaway to discuss immigration reform and his own experience living as an undocumented immigrant.
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