ICE Spares Illegal Alien with Fake Green Card, Social Security, Expired License

An illegal immigrant journalist who has admitted obtaining a fake Social Security, fake green card and fake U.S. passport has been released (and won’t be deported) by the Obama Administration after getting caught driving without a license in Minnesota.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will not deport or take any action against the offender, Jose Antonio Vargas, because the agency doesn’t consider him a “high priority.” A spokeswoman from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offered this explanation in a Minneapolis newspaper covering the story: “ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of public safety threats, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”

Vargas, a native of the Philippines made national headlines last year when he revealed that he is in the U.S. illegally. He quickly became a hero of the open borders movement because he was an award-winning reporter at a mainstream newspaper and claimed to be living the American dream undercover. Vargas’ mother had sent him to the U.S. for a better life at the age 12 and he went on to earn a college degree.

He has admitted, in a personal essay published by a mainstream newspaper, committing fraud by obtaining fake Social Security, a fake green card and a fake U.S. passport. Vargas has also revealed that he got a driver’s license in Oregon, even though he did not live there, because the state has less stringent requirements. He also got a Washington State driver’s license that eventually got revoked.

When a Minnesota State Patrol pulled Vargas over last week he had an invalid driver’s license, according to a local news report. The trooper pulled Vargas over for driving on an interstate highway with headphones in his ears. When the officer discovered that fraud led to the cancellation of Vargas’ Washington license he notified federal immigration authorities. The rental car Vargas was driving got towed and he got arrested. Three hours later he was released.

Vargas has been charged with a misdemeanor and is scheduled to appear in Hennepin County District court later this month. When word got out about the administration’s handling of the case, the mainstream media rejoiced. One major newspaper, the same one that published Vargas’ essay last year, referred to him as a “prominent immigrant rights advocate.”

This sort of selective enforcement of federal immigration laws is par for the course for the administration. Earlier this year, the president signed an order to spare nearly 1 million young illegal immigrants (“brought to the United States through no fault of their own as children”) from deportation. Last year the administration halted the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants with no criminal records.