Jose Antonio Vargas

I have a special feeling after reading Jose Antonio Vargas' story especially the day after the U.S government decided to expand Chinese students' validity of visas. I happened to talk about the immigration problem with my boyfriend last night. I joked him because his visa was rejected one year ago since the U.S. embassy thought he had tendency to immigrate. He still didn't know why he was considered to have the immigration tendency, but as a result, he lost his chance to come here for graduate school last year.

It was always very interesting for me to talk about the visa problem.

As a foreigner, I was always asked: do you want to stay here after graduate? Are you considering to be a U.S citizen. Even when I interviewed people before the election,  people always asked me, did you vote? When I answered "I don't have the right to vote since I'm not an U.S. citizen", they would continue, but you will be in the future right?

I don't think I'll be a U.S. citizen in the future. But being asked for several times, I begin to be curious about how Americans think about foreigners who study or work here? How do Americans think about immigrants?

I do know that many foreigners want to stay here. They try different ways to get citizenships.

 Back to 2013, when I first went to the U.S. embassy to apply for my Visa before I came here, I met a girl sitting outside of the door, crying. She told me that it was her fourth times that the U.S. embassy refused to grant her visa . "I'm done," she said, "I have to give up. I can't even travel in the U.S.  My family can never immigrate to the U.S. ". Barely no one can get their visas passed after being rejected for four times. She said her parents applied for immigration when she was 8 years old, but failed. Her family wanted to immigrate through her study in the U.S. So the family record might hurt her.

I also knew that some mothers came to the U.S. to give birth in order to get their children U.S. citizenships. I also heard that some people even some friends at UGA  got married with Americans in order to get their green cards.

Also, some people, like Jose Antonio Vargas' mother, sent their children to the U.S. illegally for better life.

To some extent, I understand them.

I saw a documentary several years ago. A famous universities' professor chose to stay at the U.S. illegally during his conference in the U.S. I was shocked because as a professor who taught music, he had high social status and good salary in China, why he chose to stay at the U.S. and even had to sing on the street. I can't remember if he said because of his son. But I remembered he felt regretful about his choice. He can't go back to his original life. His can't speak English well, and can't get involved in Americans' life. "I am outcast," he said.

Back to Vargas' story and journalism ethics. It's often the rule that journalists should avoid their stories related to they themselves. It could obey the objectivity. And journalists cannot write stories  for their private interests. However, this seems not apply to this case.

For Vargas, he is not only fighting for his own interests, but also those millions of undocumented immigrants. No one else knows more deeply about the hard situation than him.

We can never deny that his reporting or stories on newspapers were too subjective for those who support to send undocumented immigrants back. But sometimes not all problems have right or wrong answers.

I don't think it is right to immigrate illegally. I do think it may urge more  people immigrated illegally if the law permits illegal immigrants to get the U.S. citizenships when they are qualified some criteria.

However, back to the journalism ethics, this is a public topic. I think the journalists have the right to write the issue. At the same time, others have the right to write the opposite opinions.