“I am the only one who is undocumented, the sole person in the family without legal papers in America,” Vargas wrote in an essay recently in the New York Times. Under Obama’s immigration enforcement program, some 1.6 million immigrants have been deported, many of whom have children with US citizenship that have been left under foster care. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 17 million people in America live in homes where one person is an undocumented immigrant, and 4.5 million children are born in America of undocumented parents. Immigration reform was among the agenda that US President Barack Obama laid down in his recent State of the Union Address. Vargas came to the hearing with his family, including his grandmother Leonora Salinas, aunt Aida Rivera, and uncle Conrad Salinas, all of whom are naturalized Americans. The other witnesses were Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano Revolution CEO Steve Case, an advocate for the increase of visas for highly skilled foreign-born workers American Federation of Government Employees president Chris Crane immigrant rights activist Janet Murguia and Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. We dream of contributing to the country we call our home.” Vargas was the only "Tago Nang Tago" (TNT) or undocumented immigrant who testified in the hearing. We dream of not being separated from our families and our loved ones. Speaking for the 11 million undocumented immigrants like him, the 32-year-old Vargas said, “We dream of a path to citizenship so we can actively participate in our American democracy. Filipino journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer prize winner who came out as an undocumented immigrant in the United States, testified on Wednesday at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as part of its move to create a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
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