Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas kicked out of Romney event

July 31, 2016

By Lynn La

Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, holds up a sign during the Mitt Romney campaign event he was later kicked out of in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Kevork Djansezian

Jose Antonio Vargas, a former reporter for The Washington Post and 2008 Pulitzer-prize recipient, was booted from a campaign event today.

"I just [got] kicked out of a Mitt Romney rally here in Cedar Rapids, escorted out by an Iowa cop," he tweeted. "I could not ask a question."

According to T he Guardian, Vargas was holding a sign that read "I am an American w/o papers," during the event.

When a man asked a question about immigration policy during the question-and-answer portion of the rally, Vargas held up his sign.

Read more from GlobalPost: The U.S. government seeks to halt Alabama immigration law

He then started "talking with voters about immigration when Romney staff asked him to leave, saying he was not a journalist," said The Guardian.

It was only after a police officer showed up that Vargas agreed to move.

In his opinion, he was booted for trying to ask tough questions.

"A journalist's job is to tell the truth," Vargas wrote on his Facebook "Let's tell the truth about immigration."

The members of Mitt Romney's camp, however, see it differently.

New York Magazine reported that Vargas was not considered a member of the press because he did not have his media credentials.

“Mr. Vargas was allowed to attend the event in his capacity as an activist," a Romney spokesman, Ryan Williams, told Politico. "Our media event was for credentialed media only and he was asked to leave.”