Our undocumented immigrants make America a better place

SAN DIEGO >> I’ve come to know Jose Antonio Vargas as a good man and a fine writer who provides — in various media — an essential voice in the immigration debate.

He’s not the caricature drawn by right-wing nativists as “the most famous illegal in America.”

These are the kind of folks who lose sleep over the thought of taco trucks popping up on every street corner.

Unlike those Americans who get furious about a subject they don’t understand, this 37-year-old journalist, filmmaker and storyteller knows what he’s talking about.

All of which makes me feel bad for having said, a few years ago, that Vargas should be deported.

That law-and-order impulse is hard for me to overlook, as the son of a retired cop. I was also pushing back against elitism. If you’re in the country illegally and apprehended, and if you’re a gardener, nanny, housekeeper or farmworker, you’ll likely be deported.

There’s no exemption for Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters who have produced documentaries and been on the cover of Time magazine.

Vargas, a Filipino-American, doesn’t want special treatment. A few years ago, he called Immigration and Customs Enforcement and asked its intentions toward him. His brazenness melted ICE, and the agency basically responded: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

He has a blunt message for America, where he’s lived since he was 12, and for Americans like him.

“America, look at yourself,” he said. “Americans, look past yourselves. What you can’t face about yourself is what you can’t see about people like me.”

Now Vargas has written a memoir, “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen,” about his experience in a country that doesn’t know what it wants to do with people like him. It explains that living here without documents is all about lying to get by, passing as a citizen and hiding from authorities.

I’d add that most of the undocumented people I know won’t admit they did anything wrong. Dreamers — undocumented young people brought here as children by their parents — won’t admit their parents did either.

So we have 11 million people — a figure that could be double, according to a recent study out of Yale — who are here, out of status, and no one did anything wrong?

Most Americans won’t accept that. And so they’re not eager to allow the undocumented to legally stay. Which gets us nowhere.

Vargas supports immigration reform but not without Americans confronting our anti-immigrant virus. That’s why he co-founded Define American, an organization that wants to explore what it means to be a citizen of this country.

I was wrong about Vargas. I was so busy demanding illegal immigrants “earn” their legal status that I didn’t appreciate the price many have already paid in pain, alienation and family separation.

Vargas hasn’t seen his mother in 25 years. He could visit her in the Philippines, but he wouldn’t be able to return. The ledger’s clear; he’s paid enough.

I asked my friend what he thinks America wants from him, and what he wants from America.

“America doesn’t know what it wants from me,” Vargas said. “What I want from America is for America to see me, to see us, fully and holistically.”

I see him. I see them all. I have no doubt this country is better off with the undocumented in it. They infuse the country with optimism, fresh ideas and a fierce work ethic.

I propose a trade. For every one of these folks we keep, let’s deport 100 entitled, angry and lazy U.S.born Americans who aren’t carrying their weight.

But what country would take them?