Undocumented Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas Detained While Reporting on Refugees in Texas Jon Herskovitz - Reuters
go to original July 15, 2014

Huffington Post writer Ryan Grim tweeted a photo of agents placing handcuffs on the journalist. (Twitter)

Al Jazeera Update: Federal border authorities on Tuesday released the prominent immigration-reform advocate - who is an undocumented immigrant himself - after detaining him earlier the same day at an airport along the U.S. border with Mexico.

“I lived the American dream, building a successful career as a journalist, but I was living a lie.” Those are the words of Jose Antonio Vargas, 33, a prominent reporter and activist, in his recent film "Documented." (PRI's The World)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented immigrant and prominent immigration activist, was detained at an airport in McAllen, Texas, on Tuesday as he went through a security checkpoint, rights groups said.

Airport officials in the border city would not confirm that Vargas had been detained but said an unidentified individual was taken into custody at a security checkpoint.

U.S. Border Patrol did not reply to requests seeking comment.

Vargas, 33, posted a picture of himself holding a foreign passport and a miniature copy of the U.S. Constitution on a Facebook page for Define American, an immigration group he cofounded, as he was about to go through airport security for a domestic flight.

"The only IDs I have to show security: my Philippine passport and my pocketbook U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, which I keep with me at all times. I don't know what's going to happen," wrote Vargas.

Another photo posted soon after showed a man identified as Vargas being placed in handcuffs by uniformed personnel.

Read the rest at Reuters

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