I realize Phil Bronstein has to wring his hands about hiring Jose Antonio Vargas as a reporter in 2000 not knowing the guy lacked documentation. But after I read the Vargas story in The New York Times, all I could think of was: Man, I would have been proud to be one of the editors who hired that guy.
Bronstein worries:
Am I a dupe? A felon, at least according to a new Alabama law that might find me guilty of “harboring” Vargas in my office the other day? Or am I supporting a potentially powerful new immigration movement?
There’s no way to tell for sure when immigration laws themselves are a hopeless jumble of unenforced, unenforceable or just plain unaddressed issues covering 11 million people.
The executive editor at the Washington Post proclaims that “what Jose did was wrong.”
Give me a fucking break.
Vargas came to this country at age 12. His mom sent him to live with her parents. He had no idea he was “illegal.” He didn’t figure it out until he tried to get a driver’s license at age 16. What was he supposed to do — turn himself in?
He did what he had to do, and what he had to do was figure out ways around an inhumane and unacceptable immigration system. Good for him.
I have no mixed feelings about this at all. I’m just sorry he never worked for me.