Jose Vargas proposed that if an illegal immigrant came into the country since young age and stayed long enough to earn a bachelor’s degree, he should be granted legal status. He did not do this out of altruism; he is one such person himself. This Pulitzer prize winning journalist came to the country at 12 and used fake documents to gain employments and other necessities of life, such as getting a driver’s license.
He clearly, and admittedly, broke laws. USCIS, formerly known as INS, has the right to deport him back to Philippine, where he came from. Americans are proud to be the land of the laws and usually righteous. Jose did wrong and it is as clear as black and white. On other criteria, though, he is clearly an asset that any country would love to have. His contributions to the US have exceeded many, many legal residents or citizens.
The US has this dichotomy on immigration. Every year, millions of Mexican cross the border and enter into the generally lower rung of the service labor segment. At the other end, at a much smaller number, wealthy, well-educated, or highly skilled people tried, legally, to enter the country and got rejected. The US has the general attitude of everyone is trying to take advantage of this country, exploiting its social welfare system, get free education or medical care, or to under-cut its orderly labor market with unfair competitive tactics. “Immigrants do not play fair,” many think. “Therefore we cannot compete with them.”
Jose Vargas epitomizes this contrardiction. A disadvantage young boy worked his butts off to stay in this country and ended up a top-notch journalist. Many of his fellow Americans were well shielded and needed not to work as hard. Statistics show that first generation immigrant disproportionally achieved higher in the US. It seems obvious that without immigrants, there won’t be those high achievers and the society will ended up lowering its average. Right?
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