In the constant PR battle from the Left on the immigration flood at the border, it seems that all events lead back to the same agitators. On the heels of last weekend’s protest, promoted and publicized by Soros sponsored groups and the Left’s favorite PR people at Fitzgibbon Media, we now have a new poster boy at the border, Jose Antonio Vargas.
Many people may already be familiar with Vargas and his “Documented” documentary shown recently on CNN, in which he comes out as being both gay and illegal. Quite a double whammy. Vargas, who has written for various outlets including the Huffington Post, presents himself as an example of the model citizen, dismissing the fact that he is still breaking the law and has apparently made no attempt to gain legal citizenship in all these years.
Vargas founded a group called “Define American”, working with other leftists and organizing watch parties for his “Documented” documentary with groups such as GLAAD, MomsRising, La Raza and others. Also working with him is the left leaning pastor/spouse couple, Rev. Eller and Rev. Laura Barclay of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville. The church was the site of the first screening and panel discussion of his documentary.
Eller was with him when he was taken into custody in McAllen today. As reported by CNN, who previously aired his documentary:
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas suspected he wouldn’t get out. His fear came to fruition Tuesday morning when he was detained at a Texas airport while trying to pass through security en route to Los Angeles, said Ryan Eller, campaign director for Define American, a group Vargas founded in 2011.Vargas was being questioned at a U.S Customs and Border Protection facility at the airport in McAllen, Eller said at a news conference.
Protesting at the border when you know you are undocumented almost seems to beg for legal action, but makes for some very loud publicity. Vargas was quite aware of what he was doing:
“Because I don’t have any ID besides my Filipino passport, it’s going to be hard for me to actually get out of here at some point when I decide to get out of here in the next couple of days,” he said.
Early Tuesday, Vargas tweeted that he was about to go through security at McAllen-Miller International Airport. Since outing himself as an undocumented immigrant three years ago, he says he has traveled extensively, visiting 40 states.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he tweeted, directing his followers to the Twitter handles for Define American and the University of Texas-Pan American’s Minority Affairs Council.
Within minutes, the latter retweeted a photo of Vargas in handcuffs with the caption: “Here’s a photo of (Vargas) in handcuffs, because the Border Patrol has nothing more pressing to do apparently.”
This all makes for quite a ploy for sympathy. How could we even consider enforcing the law on such a talented and compassionate person? Perhaps the Huffington Post summed it up in this glowing piece they wrote about him in 2011:
If there isn’t room in the United States for people like Jose Antonio — the precise type of people who made this country great — I despair for our collective future.
What seems to be missing here is that Jose has made no attempt to abide by the law and gain citizenship. It is being suggested that Americans would like to refuse citizenship to everyone, when in fact, it is a matter of a flooded border, a lack of law enforcement and the related chaos that is the real issue, as they are well aware. In the documentary, Jose suggests it is just too hard to do the paperwork required. Maybe Jose should be working on streamlining that?
We have already seen close ties to unions, Soros and his funded groups behind all of this, so it should not surprise that we find the same ties here. To start with, Vargas was protesting in McAllen in conjunction with United We Dream:
Jose, who is a Pultizer Prize winning Journalist and recently released a biographical documentary called “Undocumented,” joined UWD and MAC (Minority Affairs Council), a UWD affiliate, in McAllen, Texas this past weekend to uplift the stories of refugees fleeing persecution in Central America.
Just last week, we wrote about United We Dream, working with Change to Win, and their connections to SEIU, the Teamsters and more:
Conducted by the group “United We Dream”, a quick check links them right back to the usual sources. The United We Dream website locates their offices at 1900 L St. NW Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036. No coincidence, this is the very same address, even specific to the suite number, of the CtW Investment Group. CtW stands for Change to Win, and this is the group that handles their money:
Founded in February 2006, the CtW Investment Group works with pension funds sponsored by unions affiliated with Change to Win, a federation of unions representing nearly 5.5 million members, to enhance long-term shareholder returns through active ownership.
A quick look at their News page illustrates the constant bashing of companies like Wal Mart that seems to be a big part of what they do.
Moving over to the Change to Win website, it is pretty quick to see exactly where they are coming from. The home page suggests and links to the following blogs:
Think Progress
Crooks and Liars
United Food and Commercial Workers
Service Employees International Union
Daily Kos
The About page shares the identity of the “Leadership Council”, with President James Hoffa of the Teamsters at the helm. Joining him are representatives of SEIU, UFW and UFCW, so we have quite a strong mix of unions working together here.
As just one example tying them directly together, their own story about victory in a case of halting a deportation:
Harnessing the power of organizing, collaboration, and advocacy, the United We Dream Network (UWD), along with Students Working For Equal Rights (SWER), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), waged a multi-pronged campaign to halt Walter’s deportation in just four days.
There are plenty of links online where you will find Vargas and his Define American group directly working with Soros’ Center for American Progress. Here are just a few:
- Speaking here on LGBT illegal immigrants at a Center for American Progress event.
- Co-hosting an event here on Alabama’s immigration laws with the Center for American Progress.
Vargas is just another orchestrated PR stunt, obviously well planned along with the many others we have seen. No one would disagree that we need smart immigration reform, but the lack of border enforcement and constant shenanigans from the radical Left continue to ensure that nothing close to common sense is going to be happening on their watch.
*- Vargas has already been released as of this writing.
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