Pulitzer-winning journalist to share experience as undocumented immigrant Oct. 1 at BBC

Imagine being 16 again. Now picture going to the DMV, excited about getting your learner’s permit, and finding out that, evidently, you are an undocumented immigrant.

That’s what happened to Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Filipino American journalist currently living in New York City.

Vargas’ family relocated stateside when he was 12 years old and he took to this new chapter of his life as any young kid would: with a bright-eyed eagerness. He became immersed in American culture but, as he found out four years later, the life he was leading could all come to an end. His green card was fake and he had entered the United States illegally.

The young man then made the tough decision to live a double life to avoid deportation and pursue his American Dream.

He became a journalist and covered stories for some of the nation’s leading publications, including The New York Times and Rolling Stone. In 2008, he won a Pulitzer for Breaking News Reporting. Three years later, Vargas made his boldest move yet, revealing his immigration status in a stunning essay for the New York Times Magazine titled, “My Life As an Undocumented Immigrant.”

“I had to come to grips with my reality in a country that I’ve called my home,” he wrote in a December 2011 blog post.

Today, Vargas runs Define American, a nonprofit that seeks to elevate the conversation about immigration.

He will speak at the Biscayne Bay Campus on Monday, Oct. 1, and share his experience in a frank talk hosted by the BBC Office of Campus Life in the Mary Ann Wolfe Theatre beginning at 6:30 p.m. His lecture will be followed by a Q&A session.

Admission is free and open to the public.