Immigration

Immigration

"My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant" is the personal story of Jose Antonio Vargas, former reporter for The Washington Post who shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings, and who came to the United States from the Philippines as an undocumented immigrant in 1993 when he was 12 years old.

In his story he tells of being unaware of his undocumented status until he went at age 16 to the DMV to obtain a driver's permit and the clerk there informed him that his green card was fake. Vargas is the founder of Define American, which seeks to change the conversation on immigration reform. The following is an excerpt from his revealing article:

Immigration

Immigration, especially from Latin America and Asia, drives much of the population growth and promises to reshape the United States as a more diverse nation well into the future.

HOUSTON, Texas (LAL) - Immigration has influenced the cultural and economic heart of the United States of America from its birth. Known as the "Great Melting Pot", the United States is a country that respects people no matter what their culture or country of origin. Our nation is a nation of immigrants, and today the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than the rest of the world combined.

The U.S. population increases about 2.8 million people a year. About 40 percent of the growth comes from immigration. This is supported by data presented in the Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics Annual Flow Report for 2010 with information on the number and characteristics of foreign nationals aged 18 years and over who were naturalized during 2010.