"America is White and Black and Latino and Asian. America is mixed. America is immigrants."
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Quote collection
Jose Antonio Vargas quotes (page 1 of 3)
45 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Citizenship to me is more than a piece of paper. Citizenship is also about character. I am an American. We're just waiting for our country to recognize it."
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"For Filipino Americans, it's a battle for recognition, for identity in a culture where, for the mainstream, Asians tend to fade into a monochromatic racialized 'other.'"
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"Together, undocumented people like me and our relatives, friends and allies wait for broader immigration reform, not just for Dreamers but also for undocumented workers of all ages and backgrounds who contribute to our economic security and prosperity."
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"I am not the 'illegal' you think I am, and immigration is not what you think it is."
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"When people call me illegal, calling me illegal says more about you than it does about me."
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"To be in America illegally is actually a civil offense and not a criminal one."
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"I remember the first thing I did when I found out I was illegal was to get rid of my thick Filipino accent. I figured that I had to talk white and talk black at the same time, like Charlie Rose and Dr. Dre. If I can talk white and black then no one is ever going to think that I'm "illegal.""
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"You have to stand for something bigger than yourself."
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"I have no control over what people call me. The only thing I have control over is my work, and that's really all I can be judged on."
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"To me, it's just that social media is allowing people to be in charge of their own narratives."
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"I grew up in newsrooms. I've been in newsrooms since I was 17 years old. Journalism has been like my church; it's been like my identity."
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"A friend said to me I'm like a walking New Yorker article. It's true! That's how I write. That's how I think."
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"I'm not a politician. I'm not a policy wonk. I was a political reporter, but that's not really what turns me on. What turns me on is how people perceive the issue and how people see people like me."
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"I always felt like I had the word "illegal" tattooed on my forehead."
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"Independent of politics, the changing narrative on immigration is directly correlated to the fact that we have new technologies that are allowing people to talk to each other and tell their own stories and organize themselves."
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"I'm not excusing the illegal act. I am here illegally. I'm here illegally, without authorization. That's a fact. That's nothing you can call the Orwellian cops about. But I am a human being, so therefore I am not illegal. That's also a fact."
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"Immigration is by far the most controversial yet least understood issue in America. Frankly, given the way we're talking about immigration, given the emphasis, the overemphasis on border security, I would argue that we're not on the same page when we debate this issue. We're doing far too much debating and not enough conversing."
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"The only reason I became a writer was so I could exist on a piece of paper."
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"If I could, I'd go city by city, county by county, town by town, and talk to people to explain to them what immigration is really about - that this is not about me, this is not about us, this is not about us taking something from you. This is not about us being a threat to you. This is not about Democrat or Republican, and this is not really about border security. But in some ways our politics, and in many ways our politicians, have gotten in the way."
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