Jose Antonio Vargas Quotes

Quotes about:

• America is White and Black and Latino and Asian. America is mixed. America is immigrants.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  White, America, Black

  72 Copy quote

• Citizenship to me is more than a piece of paper. Citizenship is also about character. I am an American. We're just waiting for our country to recognize it.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Country, Character, Waiting

  31 Copy quote

• For Filipino Americans, it's a battle for recognition, for identity in a culture where, for the mainstream, Asians tend to fade into a monochromatic racialized 'other.'

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Battle, Identity, Culture

  24 Copy quote

• Together, undocumented people like me and our relatives, friends and allies wait for broader immigration reform, not just for Dreamers but also for undocumented workers of all ages and backgrounds who contribute to our economic security and prosperity.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  People, Waiting, Dreamer

  19 Copy quote

• You have to stand for something bigger than yourself.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Bigger, Stand For Something, Something Bigger Than Yourself

  Source: www.pbs.org

  12 Copy quote

• A broken immigration system means broken families means broken lives. That's what is at stake.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Mean, Broken, Immigration

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• When people call me illegal, calling me illegal says more about you than it does about me.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  People, Doe, Calling

  Source: www.pbs.org

  16 Copy quote

• I am not the 'illegal' you think I am, and immigration is not what you think it is.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Thinking, Immigration, Illegal

  "Jose Antonio Vargas: Why I made 'Documented'" by Jose Antonio Vargas, www.cnn.com. March 13, 2014.

  18 Copy quote

• If I could, I'd go city by city, county by county, town by town, and talk to people to explain to them what immigration is really about - that this is not about me, this is not about us, this is not about us taking something from you. This is not about us being a threat to you. This is not about Democrat or Republican, and this is not really about border security. But in some ways our politics, and in many ways our politicians, have gotten in the way.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  People, Immigration, Republican

  6 Copy quote

• To be in America illegally is actually a civil offense and not a criminal one.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  America, Criminals, Offense

  Source: www.today.com

  14 Copy quote

• I remember the first thing I did when I found out I was illegal was to get rid of my thick Filipino accent. I figured that I had to talk white and talk black at the same time, like Charlie Rose and Dr. Dre. If I can talk white and black then no one is ever going to think that I'm "illegal."

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Thinking, White, Rose

  "A Minute With: Filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas on being 'undocumented'". Interview with Eric Kelsey, www.reuters.com. June 25, 2014.

  12 Copy quote

• The only reason I became a writer was so I could exist on a piece of paper.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Paper, Pieces, Reason

  "A Minute With: Filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas on being 'undocumented'". Interview with Eric Kelsey, www.reuters.com. June 25, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

• Immigration is by far the most controversial yet least understood issue in America. Frankly, given the way we're talking about immigration, given the emphasis, the overemphasis on border security, I would argue that we're not on the same page when we debate this issue. We're doing far too much debating and not enough conversing.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Immigration, Arguing, Debate

  7 Copy quote

• I'm not excusing the illegal act. I am here illegally. I'm here illegally, without authorization. That's a fact. That's nothing you can call the Orwellian cops about. But I am a human being, so therefore I am not illegal. That's also a fact.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Cop, Orwellian

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  7 Copy quote

• I have no control over what people call me. The only thing I have control over is my work, and that's really all I can be judged on.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  People, Call Me, I Can

  Source: www.pbs.org

  10 Copy quote

• Independent of politics, the changing narrative on immigration is directly correlated to the fact that we have new technologies that are allowing people to talk to each other and tell their own stories and organize themselves.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Independent, Technology, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

• I always felt like I had the word "illegal" tattooed on my forehead.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Tattooed, Illegal, Foreheads

  "A Minute With: Filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas on being 'undocumented'". Interview with Eric Kelsey, www.reuters.com. June 25, 2014.

  7 Copy quote

• To me, it's just that social media is allowing people to be in charge of their own narratives.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Media, People, Narrative

  Source: www.pbs.org

  9 Copy quote

• The greatest gift that we have as human beings is our ability to empathize. That's why I think personal stories matter so much. That's someone's mom. That's someone's daughter. That's someone's son.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Mom, Daughter, Son

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• The hardest stories we tell are always about ourselves. How do you explain that you have been missing your mother for 20 years? I don't know how to explain that to you. I wasn't even sure I wanted to film that, because I don't know how I felt about it. I didn't want to put her through it, and I frankly wasn't ready. Because since I was 16, I just had created my own life for myself, you know? I left when I was 12. I'm 32. And I have gotten to know my mother more through editing her and looking and watching and editing her footage, you know.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Mother, Missing, Film

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• Like other undocumented people in this country, I want a green card, and I want a driver's license, and I want a passport. What, to me, is the immigration bill? It's a green card, a driver's license, and a passport. That's what it's about to me, tangibly. That I could see my mom. That I could drive. Is there anything more American than driving? That I could get a green card and be able to - right now, I'm just like freelancing and working as an independent contractor. It's hilarious. I'm unhirable.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Mom, Country, Independent

  4 Copy quote

• No amount of success - whatever that means, quote-unquote success - no amount of success replaces the reality of being separated from my family for this long.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Mean, Reality, Long

  4 Copy quote

• I feel like people expect me to give them easy answers, but there aren't really easy answers. There are only harder questions. And unless we get to the harder questions part, about what this conversation is really about...of course I want an immigration bill to pass. I want people to have a driver's license and work permits and green cards and passports. But this conversation transcends this bill. We're not going to have a perfect bill. This is politics. I feel like my job is instead of giving people easy answers, my job is to actually to ask people to probe deeper.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Giving, Perfect, People

  4 Copy quote

• The DREAMers are the safe ones, right? It's okay to advocate for the DREAMers because they're the English-speaking, college-educated ones, right? It's so interesting that I set out to document DREAMers, but what I ended up doing was actually documenting the experience of, the reality and truth of, the moms and the parents.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Mom, Reality, Interesting

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• There's always to me a universality - one of the things I learned early on as a journalist and a writer is that there's a universality in specifics. The more specific you get, the more universal it can be.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  Journalist

  4 Copy quote

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