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Top 25 Jose Antonio Vargas Quotes (2025 Update)

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “You have to stand for something bigger than yourself.”

1. “You have to stand for something bigger than yourself.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “America is White and Black and Latino and Asian. America is mixed. America is immigrants.”

2. “America is White and Black and Latino and Asian. America is mixed. America is immigrants.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “For Filipino Americans, it’s a battle for recognition, for identity in a culture where, for the mainstream, Asians tend to fade into a monochromatic racialized ‘other.’”

3. “For Filipino Americans, it’s a battle for recognition, for identity in a culture where, for the mainstream, Asians tend to fade into a monochromatic racialized ‘other.’”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Migration is the most natural thing people do, the root of how civilizations, nation-states, and countries were established. The difference, however, is that when white people move, then and now, it’s seen as courageous and necessary, celebrated in history books. Yet when people of color move, legally or illegally, the migration itself is subjected to question of legality. Is it a crime? Will they assimilate? When will they stop?”

4. “Migration is the most natural thing people do, the root of how civilizations, nation-states, and countries were established. The difference, however, is that when white people move, then and now, it’s seen as courageous and necessary, celebrated in history books. Yet when people of color move, legally or illegally, the migration itself is subjected to question of legality. Is it a crime? Will they assimilate? When will they stop?”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Dear America, is this what you really want? Do you even know what is happening in your name?”

5. “Dear America, is this what you really want? Do you even know what is happening in your name?”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “To pass as an American, I always had to question the law. Not just break it, not just circumvent it, but question it. I had to interrogate how laws are created, how illegality must be seen through the prism of who is defining what is legal for whom. I had to realize that throughout American history, legality has forever been a construct of power.”

6. “To pass as an American, I always had to question the law. Not just break it, not just circumvent it, but question it. I had to interrogate how laws are created, how illegality must be seen through the prism of who is defining what is legal for whom. I had to realize that throughout American history, legality has forever been a construct of power.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Citizenship to me is more than a piece of paper. Citizenship is also about character. I am an American. We’re just waiting for our country to recognize it.”

7. “Citizenship to me is more than a piece of paper. Citizenship is also about character. I am an American. We’re just waiting for our country to recognize it.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “White as the default, white as the center, white as the norm, is the central part of the master narrative. The centrality of whiteness – how it constructed white versus black, legal versus illegal – hurts not only people of color who aren’t white but also white people who can’t carry the burden of what they’ve constructed.”

8. “White as the default, white as the center, white as the norm, is the central part of the master narrative. The centrality of whiteness – how it constructed white versus black, legal versus illegal – hurts not only people of color who aren’t white but also white people who can’t carry the burden of what they’ve constructed.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Home is not something I should have to earn.”

9. “Home is not something I should have to earn.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “What we’re doing – waving a “Keep Out!” flag at the Mexican border while holding up a Help Wanted sign a hundred yards in – is deliberate. Spending billions building fences and walls, locking people up like livestock, deporting people to keep the people we don’t want out, tearing families apart, breaking spirits – all of that serves a purpose.”

10. “What we’re doing – waving a “Keep Out!” flag at the Mexican border while holding up a Help Wanted sign a hundred yards in – is deliberate. Spending billions building fences and walls, locking people up like livestock, deporting people to keep the people we don’t want out, tearing families apart, breaking spirits – all of that serves a purpose.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “I have no control over what people call me. The only thing I have control over is my work, and that’s really all I can be judged on.”

11. “I have no control over what people call me. The only thing I have control over is my work, and that’s really all I can be judged on.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “To me, it’s just that social media is allowing people to be in charge of their own narratives.”

12. “To me, it’s just that social media is allowing people to be in charge of their own narratives.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “What would you have done? Work under the table? Stay under the radar? Not work at all? Which box would you check? What have you done to earn your box? Besides being born at a certain place in a certain time, did you have to do anything? Anything at all? If you wanted to have a career, if you wanted to have a life, if you wanted to exist as a human being, what would you have done?”

13. “What would you have done? Work under the table? Stay under the radar? Not work at all? Which box would you check? What have you done to earn your box? Besides being born at a certain place in a certain time, did you have to do anything? Anything at all? If you wanted to have a career, if you wanted to have a life, if you wanted to exist as a human being, what would you have done?”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Humanity is not some box I should have to check.”

14. “Humanity is not some box I should have to check.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “We must fight white supremacy wherever it exists, within both progressive and conservative circles.”

15. “We must fight white supremacy wherever it exists, within both progressive and conservative circles.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Together, undocumented people like me and our relatives, friends and allies wait for broader immigration reform, not just for Dreamers but also for undocumented workers of all ages and backgrounds who contribute to our economic security and prosperity.”

16. “Together, undocumented people like me and our relatives, friends and allies wait for broader immigration reform, not just for Dreamers but also for undocumented workers of all ages and backgrounds who contribute to our economic security and prosperity.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “It’s less about coming out and more about letting people in. I learned that you come out to let people in. The reality is that the closet doesn’t only hide you from strangers, the closet also hides you from people you love.”

17. “It’s less about coming out and more about letting people in. I learned that you come out to let people in. The reality is that the closet doesn’t only hide you from strangers, the closet also hides you from people you love.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Independent of politics, the changing narrative on immigration is directly correlated to the fact that we have new technologies that are allowing people to talk to each other and tell their own stories and organize themselves.”

18. “Independent of politics, the changing narrative on immigration is directly correlated to the fact that we have new technologies that are allowing people to talk to each other and tell their own stories and organize themselves.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “I came to the realization that I refuse to let a presidency scare me from my own country. I refuse to live a life of fear defined by a government that doesn’t even know why it fears what it fears. Because I am not a citizen by law or by birth, I’ve had to create and hold on to a different kind of citizenship... Citizenship is showing up. Citizenship is using your voice while making sure you hear other people around you. Citizenship is how you live your life.”

19. “I came to the realization that I refuse to let a presidency scare me from my own country. I refuse to live a life of fear defined by a government that doesn’t even know why it fears what it fears. Because I am not a citizen by law or by birth, I’ve had to create and hold on to a different kind of citizenship... Citizenship is showing up. Citizenship is using your voice while making sure you hear other people around you. Citizenship is how you live your life.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “I grew up in newsrooms. I’ve been in newsrooms since I was 17 years old. Journalism has been like my church; it’s been like my identity.”

20. “I grew up in newsrooms. I’ve been in newsrooms since I was 17 years old. Journalism has been like my church; it’s been like my identity.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “One of the things I had to really wrap my head around is I have no control over what people call me: advocate, activist, gay, Filipino, undocumented person, gay person with an Asian face and Latino name.”

21. “One of the things I had to really wrap my head around is I have no control over what people call me: advocate, activist, gay, Filipino, undocumented person, gay person with an Asian face and Latino name.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “I’m not a politician. I’m not a policy wonk. I was a political reporter, but that’s not really what turns me on. What turns me on is how people perceive the issue and how people see people like me.”

22. “I’m not a politician. I’m not a policy wonk. I was a political reporter, but that’s not really what turns me on. What turns me on is how people perceive the issue and how people see people like me.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “A friend said to me I’m like a walking New Yorker article. It’s true! That’s how I write. That’s how I think.”

23. “A friend said to me I’m like a walking New Yorker article. It’s true! That’s how I write. That’s how I think.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “When people call me illegal, calling me illegal says more about you than it does about me.”

24. “When people call me illegal, calling me illegal says more about you than it does about me.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “When people think of borders and walls, they usually think of land. I think of water. It’s painful to think that the same water that connects us all also divides us, dividing Mama and me.”

25. “When people think of borders and walls, they usually think of land. I think of water. It’s painful to think that the same water that connects us all also divides us, dividing Mama and me.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Immigrants are seen as mere labor, our physical bodies judged by perceptions of what we contribute, or what we take. Our existence is as broadly criminalized as it is commodified.”

26. “Immigrants are seen as mere labor, our physical bodies judged by perceptions of what we contribute, or what we take. Our existence is as broadly criminalized as it is commodified.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Here in America, the libraries were my church, and I was an acolyte.”

27. “Here in America, the libraries were my church, and I was an acolyte.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “To Lolo, America was something you wear, something you buy, something you eat, and he wanted to spoil his first and only grandson – me. It was consumption all around.”

28. “To Lolo, America was something you wear, something you buy, something you eat, and he wanted to spoil his first and only grandson – me. It was consumption all around.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas Quote: “Mama recently mailed me this letter, which I sent her more than twenty-three years ago. As I read it now, I don’t recognize that young boy. What happened to all that love and longing I felt for the family and friends I’d left? Separation not only divides families; separation buries emotion, buries it so far down you can’t touch it. I don’t think I would ever love Mama again in the childlike, carefree, innocent way I loved her while writing that letter. I don’t know where that young boy went.”

29. “Mama recently mailed me this letter, which I sent her more than twenty-three years ago. As I read it now, I don’t recognize that young boy. What happened to all that love and longing I felt for the family and friends I’d left? Separation not only divides families; separation buries emotion, buries it so far down you can’t touch it. I don’t think I would ever love Mama again in the childlike, carefree, innocent way I loved her while writing that letter. I don’t know where that young boy went.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

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