Daniel: There’s something else notable in that NYT piece on Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter, announcing that he’s an illegal alien. He writes that he admitted he was an illegal alien to a member of the Post’s management staff, specifically to Peter Perl, then director of newsroom training and professional development (now assistant managing editor for personnel). This means that the Post violated 8 USC 1324a, which says, in part:
(2) Continuing employment It is unlawful for a person or other entity, after hiring an alien for employment in accordance with paragraph (1), to continue to employ the alien in the United States knowing the alien is (or has become) an unauthorized alien with respect to such employment.
I eagerly await news of the fine ICE will levy against the company.
Please keep us updated Inspector Javert.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat a boring response.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEvery cop is a criminal, and all the tuppy's saints ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is a bit of a moral pickle, isn't it? Or is it?
First, WaPo clearly violated federal law. That's not debatable.
Second, I would certainly be sympathetic to Vargas if he was 18 or 19 and was just finding out that his immigration status was wholly fraudulent, and he was searching for a way to remedy it, legally. This isn't that.
This is a guy who was an ACTIVE after-the-fact co-conspirator in a criminal enterprise of fraud. And, it was fraudulent enterprise that went on for a lengthy period of time.
Like Foster, I'm not at all unsympathetic to the situation that many of these "illegal" children find themselves in. They very well may be entirely unaware that they aren't citizens and my be here illegally. I would think that intelligent people could get together and craft some kind of legislation that would extend to these kids - ones that have been here for some period of time and without any criminal convictions - a (hate to say it) pathway to a visa or green card. A conditional green card that would be predicated on any number of things.
I don't think that is anything like extending amnesty to adults or teens who crossed into the country illegally. They should be deported immediately upon discovery.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd it should only apply to the innocent child, no subsequent piggyback visas for family.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe don't have to "craft" anything new. Illegal alien children are not held responsible for their status until age 18. If they return to their home countries before 18 1/2 they do not face the 10-year bar and are free to apply for visas, including foreign student visas. The latter lets them have the same chance legal foreign students get to attend college here and possibly find an employer to sponsor them.
And the military already has the power to let illegal aliens enlist, or so some Congressman (Jeff Sessions?) said.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo, no--it's a brilliant response! While we're at it, let's also do away with ANY regulations affecting businesses, and especially employment. Just think, no SEC, no EEOC...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe forgotten victims.
The California taxpayer, out at least $100,000 for this guys 7-12 education and subsidy while he was at San Francisco State.
The legal resident who got rejected at SFSU while this dude took his place. And please note, that Cali breaks down the 'Asian' category so likely he got preference as a Filipino -- who are 'underrepresented minorities'.
The guy on the job market who lost the opportunity Vargas was given.
No, I don't have any sympathy with him. Nor much with other 'innocents'. Letting them stay here rewards the criminals , the parents. Listen, when a legal resident gets sent away for tax evasion (or whatever), his kids suffer. They might have to move out of the house and neighborhood they grew up in. Too bad, we don't stop enforcing tax law because of it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDon't hold your breath waiting, Mark. Hiring illegal immigrants is probably covered by the First Amendment guarantee of a free press.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHoly cow, a law isn't being enforced!
This would shock someone who's never seen a highway in America.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHave you seen a lot of felonies talking places on the highways in your neck of the woods? I doubt that you have. But pretending that there is no distinction between a speeding ticket and a felony punishable by five years in a federal pen plus a $100,000 fine counts as a clever argument among the open borders crowd.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not a part of the "open borders" crowd. I'd like to see our government get control of our borders and eliminate illegal immigration. But the idea that it's at all surprising that ICE isn't rushing to prosecute the Post is ridiculous.
Enforcement is the exception, not the rule, just like enforcement of the speed limit on I-95.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEnforcement of the speed limit on I-95 is vastly more common than enforcement of immigration law.
>"the idea that it's at all surprising that ICE isn't rushing to prosecute the Post is ridiculous."
It's not surprising on the least - because it is the official policy of the US federal and many state governments to specifically NOT enforce immigration law. There is no one police body charged with enforcing the speed limit on I-95. You'd be wise not to assume that the same policy is in force near NYC as in Connecticut.
And my point about the relative seriousness of the crimes involved in speeding vs illegal immigration still stands. Pretending that the two are in any way analogous is what makes you "open borders".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut I'm not for open borders! Your definition of who is "open borders" includes people who would have the government control all entrances into the U.S.?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo, my definition of who is "open borders" includes the sort of people who think that the crimes committed by illegal immigrants (and here I mostly mean the identity crimes rather than the other ones they engage in) are analogous to traffic tickets.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHoly Cow! Another Libertarian that doesn't want our laws to be enforced!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLook at his other posts. He's not a Libertarian. He attacks conservatism without rhyme or reason or any attempt at consistency. Almost as if his job were to take every Media Matters trope and make sure we see it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnless ICE has the power to take back a Pulitzer, I think the Post made the best "business choice" available.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI rate the Pulitzer about as highly as I do Obama's Nobel Prize--not at all.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI expect many more such stories to come out. Clearly he felt emboldened to do so, practically daring any law enforcement agency to take action against him, possibly due to the new advocate-written policies favoring any illegal alien who is not a single, childless, male between 18-65, from an industrialized country, and has already completed higher education.
Nor would I expect for a minute that either ICE will touch him, nor that any AG will take any criminal action whatsoever against him or those who employed him, or enabled or facilitated his illegal residence.
"Outing" oneself as an illegal, particularly when accompanied by media entities and a vocal support base, even a press conference or two, certainly seems to be benefiting many illegals by cowing the Administration into ordering termination or suspension of their deportation, or indefinite leave to remain in the US.
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