Jose Antonio Vargas Quotes

I do not support driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.

For decades, I have cringed whenever someone called me 'illegal,' as if I'm an insect on someone's back. I found out I didn't have the right papers - that I was here illegally - when I tried to get a driver's permit at age 16. But I am not 'illegal.' No person is.

When you're the child of undocumented immigrants, you learn to keep your mouth shut.

My dad was undocumented for a period of time, my mom was also undocumented for a period of time.

It is erroneous and profoundly irresponsible to suggest that up to three million undocumented immigrants living in America are dangerous criminals.

If you're an illegal alien in Prince William County, I'd get out.

My father, who worked as a dishwasher, was especially anxious. He did not like being here undocumented.

There were many factors as to why I decided to come out as being undocumented. One of them is because I look the way that I look; I don't look like the 'stereotypical undocumented' person.

You know, I'm one of millions of undocumented people in this country who are living kind of under the shadows. And in many ways, coming out, it was my way of - at the end of the day, I think we have to tell the truth about this immigration system. And because of that, I had to tell the truth about myself.

What person here illegally (and in his right mind), will go to the government, announce being here illegally (e.g. plead guilty), provide all sorts of information as to where that person lives etc. to get a work permit only to be a target for deportation in two years?

I want to help correct the inaccurate image of immigration in the media. There is an idea that women's issues are over here and immigration is over there. Three quarters of undocumented workers are women and children.

I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants.

People have to stop employing illegal immigrants.

The way the market works it is always cheaper to hire an illegal immigrant then to hire a legal immigrant.

If I ran for president, the first thing I'd do is legalize everyone who's been here paying taxes, working, paying taxes. Mothers and fathers of kids born in the U.S. should get a green card.

DACA is a lifeline for individuals who have grown up in the U.S. but who lack immigration papers.

I would give illegal immigrants already here a three-month grace period to apply for a temporary worker's visa. If they failed to apply within that time frame, they would be considered fugitives, and they would be found and deported.

Our friends, neighbors, and their families have been forced to live in the shadows out of fear of being torn from their families and deported from what is, for many of them, the only country they have ever known.

When I got my law degree and my license to practice here in the District of Columbia, I represented several immigrants who had entered without inspection.

Within the Filipino community, everybody knows somebody who's undocumented.

Bernie Sanders supports offering a pathway to citizenship for immigrants already in the U.S. and halting deportations for almost 9 million hardworking undocumented fathers and mothers.

My real story is this: I am the citizen daughter of immigrant parents who were deported when I was 14. My older brother was also deported.

It is not 'dehumanizing' to call someone an illegal immigrant if he/she resides in the host country illegally.

When we in Congress set the terms under which immigrants in this country must live, we wield a power that is checked primarily by our individual sense of fairness: the power to set taxes and make laws that apply to people who do not have representation.

I think we should be pushing for amnesty and a path to citizenship for every undocumented person residing in the United States who has not committed a violent crime, with a special emphasis on keeping families together.