Jose Antonio Vargas, sometimes called “America’s Most Famous Undocumented Immigrant,” was detained by border patrol in McAllen, Texas today while attempting to fly home after a border vigil for the Central American children fleeing violence.
Jose, who is a Pultizer Prize winning Journalist and recently released a biographical documentary called “Undocumented,” joined UWD and MAC (Minority Affairs Council), a UWD affiliate, in McAllen, Texas this past weekend to uplift the stories of refugees fleeing persecution in Central America.
But Jose was unaware that McAllen in South Texas is completely surrounded by U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints. Tania Chavez of the Minority Affairs Council in McAllen, Texas said in an email to advocates today:
Jose’s current situation is our reality every day. For many undocumented immigrants who live near the border, we can’t return to our home countries, and can’t travel outside of a 100-mile radius in our home state of Texas. We’re trapped inside a cage.
Early this morning United We DREAM and other advocates marched to the airport to stand with Jose and families who live on the border.
UWD was planning to livestream a press conference in McAllen this morning – and we started watching – but it was shut down. Huffington Post’s Jennifer Bendery tweeted:
“This a live feed? Please take that down right now.” — guy’s voice before feed cut off from @DefineAmerican gathering in McAllen
— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) July 15, 2014
We’ll have further updates as we learn of them. In the meantime, follow DefineAmerican and United We DREAM on twitter for breaking news.
UPDATE at 11:15 AM ET: United We DREAM’s livestream from McAllen, Texas is live again.
