I guess he isn't the happiest looking fellow out there either.
In Mr. Vargas's case, he was brought over by his grandparents and parents so he did not even know that he wasn't supposed to be in the United States until he applied for a California driver's license and his fictitious documentation did not pass muster. After living in the U.S. for that many years I certainly wouldn't see moving back to the Philippines to be "legal" as a viable option either. I will use Mr. Vargas's story to refute a few of the common stereotypes about undocumented workers.
Claim 1: They steal jobs from real Americans!
This claim is just silly. While it's true that there may be a few unemployed American citizens who want to do a job that is currently being performed by an undocumented worker, many do part-time farm labor or other sorts of menial jobs that don't pay that well, don't offer benefits, or are dangerous.
However, the main flaw with this argument is just that if you add more people to your community that means there is more work that needs to be done, thus creating jobs that way. For instance, let's say a town of 1,000 people grows to 1,500 people because some illegal immigrants move in. In one stroke there is a huge demand for housing, food, and all of the other services that the old residents use. This may increase competition for existing jobs for a short period of time, but the increased demand for products and services will eventually create new positions and careers.
This home brought to you by illegal immigration!
Claim 2: They don't contribute anything to the United States!
Well that is patently false. If illegal immigrants are performing a job they are certainly giving something back, even if it isn't much more than picking strawberries or mowing lawns.
Although they may have to take steps to conceal their identify while mowing.
In Mr. Vargas's case, he delivered many exceptional news stories throughout his career, including being part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. That's a hell of a lot more than I've contributed to society thus far.
Claim 3: Illegal immigrants use all our public services, commit crime, and drive states into bankruptcy!
This claim is one that I cannot refute out of hand, as there is some truth to it. For example, undocumented workers are only around 7% of Arizona's population but make up nearly 15% of people in their prison system. They also contribute to healthcare costs to some degree because they rarely have any form of health insurance. This is older data, but apparently around 59% of undocumented adults do not have insurance. The actual end cost for this is unknown. One estimate from the same article says that it costs California $1.4 billion a year, but two other groups that looked at California only found costs of $31 million and $17 million respectively.
The main problem with this claim is that illegal immigrants usually are in groups with a lower socioeconomic status than regular citizens. Among American citizens, those who are in poverty also are disproportionately in prison and uninsured. The other issue is that it ignores any revenue that these undocumented workers may be providing to the government, such as paying sales tax on goods. I don't have the exact figures for any of this, and I imagine such data would be difficult to collect, but it's something to consider instead of just looking at the bits of data about undocumented workers that are easy to collect.
Claim 4: They just don't belong here, they should stay where they were born.
The problem with this claim should be obvious, unless you are a native American you are a descendent of immigrants to North America. If the native Americans had had an immigration office, you would also be a descendent of illegal immigrants, as the Europeans certainly did not ask for permission to enter the area.
The face of illegal immigration!
Conclusion
I congratulate Mr. Vargas on his courage in coming forth with his story; hopefully it will help some people realize that illegal immigrants are people who can contribute to the United States, not people "stealing" jobs and public services from Americans.
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