Dear America

September 1, 2018
As if to dare the attorney general to come find him, Philippines-born immigrant journalist Vargas, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, owns up to being "illegal"--but not criminal.As the author's account opens and closes, he has been arrested in preparation for a "removal proceeding," the consequence of his mother's decision to put him on a plane with a supposed uncle and send him to the promised land of the United States at the age of 12 in 1993. That uncle was a smuggler, and the life Vargas found wasn't all that it was supposed to be; neither did he have the papers--real ones, anyway--to support things like getting a driver's license or going to the polls. Given the mood of the nation, which, as the author notes, officially no longer characterizes itself as "a nation of immigrants," it's understandable that he is perplexed and worried at his situation, perhaps less intuitively so that he should confess it in a book that almost certainly will not change many minds: Those opposed to immigration, illegal and legal, will dismiss his pleas, and those for it will share his indignation. Of more interest to readers on the middle ground, if there are any, is the author's account of how few and technically complex the supposed paths for legal immigration are these days--and how easy it is to be deported. Thus he had to wrestle when, having appeared on-air to discuss his plea, he was invited by Nancy Pelosi to be her guest in Congress, an invitation that an immigration-lawyer friend urged him to decline: "It took .25 seconds for the Breitbart website to pull up 725 articles under the search 'Jose Antonio Vargas.' Breitbart runs immigration policy in the United States." Though in fact detained, the author was released and now lives in a kind of legal limbo while waiting to see what, if anything, will happen.An unusual firsthand report from the immigration wars.

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Starred review from September 15, 2018
At the age of 12, Vargas was brought to the U.S. from the Philippines without papers, assisted by a "coyote," a term a Border Patrol agent explains to him as he is detained as an adult in McAllen, Texas. In this excruciatingly timely memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Vargas implements his strategy of radical transparency, purposefully laying out his undocumented status for the world to see. Although this book mimics a straightforward memoir, it is couched in questions vital for every reader's consideration: Who "deserves" citizenship? Why is migration considered historically courageous for white people but a crime for people of color? Like a cracked mirror, Vargas' story is splintered through a myriad of selves?son, journalist, gay man, undocumented resident, advocate?each sliver burnished by education and inspiration, courtesy in large part of the local library, where he soaks up American culture from E. L. Doctorow to Toni Morrison, becoming an American in every sense but the legal one. Vargas' frank and fearless voice thoughtfully and intentionally challenges readers to confront the call for action at the heart of this book: the urgent need for "a new language around migration and the meaning of citizenship."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2018

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker, and founder and CEO of the nonprofit media advocacy organization Define American, Vargas is among America's best-known undocumented immigrants, having come here illegally at age 12 from the Philippines. Since he acknowledged his status, he has advocated for migrant and immigrant rights worldwide; here, he considers what it means to be American and how it feels when you are considered alien in your own home. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2018

When Vargas (founder, DefineAmerican.com) was 12, he was brought from his home in the Philippines to California to live with his grandparents. With the help of his community, he succeeded in school and went on to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Yet his undocumented status weighed heavily, as he constantly had to lie in order to move through life. Eventually, Vargas went public about his status and founded Define American, an immigrant advocacy organization. Through a series of short essays, he meditates on the difficulty of reconciling his Filipino and American identities, race, the role of journalism and media in the immigration debate, the challenges of living as an undocumented public figure, and the harshness of current immigration policy. He intersperses facts about immigration throughout and argues that immigrants deserve to be a formal part of America. VERDICT A thought-provoking, moving, and highly personal memoir of Vargas's struggle to belong. Recommended for all readers interested in immigration issues and American identity.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.