How I Got “Legal” After 31 Years as an Undocumented American

Define American with Jose Antonio Vargas Episode 9: How I Got “Legal” After 31 Years as an Undocumented American On Christmas night, for the first time since arriving in California on August 3, 1993, I left the United States, crossing the border into Mexico for an interview at the U.S. consulate in Tijuana. After living as an undocumented immigrant for 31 years, I finally had a chance at a visa. There was no guarantee that I would be approved. I packed for a trip that may last days, a week or two, maybe months, not exactly knowing how to pack for the worst case scenario. As I waited for several days after the interview, I was flooded with emotions and questions: What is home? Who am I without America? What if American citizenship is no longer my goal? In those hours of grilling myself, I realized — my work is global. I want to tell the stories of migrants re-shaping the Western world. Being undocumented is not an identity to me — it’s a condition. More than anything else — more than being gay, more than being Filipino — I identify as a human being who happens to be a journalist. Being a journalist is how I make sense of the world around me and my place in it. And I cannot think of a more crucial time to be a journalist, chronicling this defining issue of migration. Watch the full video to find out what happened next. Subscribe for more videos on #Immigration and the American identity: bit.ly/subscribedefineamerican Join us 🤗 https://www.tiktok.com/@UCBqD7XwQxZ4tBSacPEgdcEw https://www.instagram.com/joseiswriting/ https://bsky.app/profile/joseiswriting.bsky.social 💬https://twitter.com/DefineAmerican 💬https://www.facebook.com/DefineAmerican 💬https://www.instagram.com/defineamerican/ 💌https://www.defineamerican.com/subscribe 🖥️https://www.defineamerican.com