PHIL BRONSTEIN: I was duped by Jose Vargas, illegal immigrant

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 6/23/11 | Chronicle's Editor at Large Phil Bronstein

[SmithL]

I was duped. I once hired an illegal immigrant to be a reporter for the Chronicle.

"I don't think I'm a criminal," Jose Antonio Vargas told me when we met last week, right before he announced his status to the world. "Don't make me seem guiltier than I am."

Jose lied to me and everyone else he worked for, and that's not kosher, especially in a profession where facts and, more elusively, the truth are considered valuable commodities. In 2003 he wrote a story for us about illegals getting fake drivers' licenses in the Mission when he'd used phony documents to get his own. He told me last week that he decided then that was a serious conflict of interest and wouldn't cover immigration any more. But he later wrote on the topic for the Post.

Even though I didn't know he was a lawbreaker when he worked for me, and he left the paper in 2004, his story lands me a little more directly in the atrociously rudderless but vicious debate on immigration reform.

After Jose's essay was published on the New York Times website yesterday, detailing his deception in getting heady jobs here, at the Washington Post and the Huffington Post - and snagging exclusive access to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg for a New Yorker profile - I have to wonder:

Am I a dupe? A felon - at least according to a tough new Alabama law that might find me guilty of "harboring" Jose when he was in my office the other day (I also bought him coffee)? Or have I unwittingly supported a potentially powerful new movement in the push for immigration reform?

[SmithL]

An illegal alien was working in Sanctuary Francisco? Just, Wow!

[MsLady]

Finally getting a little taste of what the rest of us have known for years. These people no matter how poor or how much they need a job, most are not honorable. First they come across our borders illegally, next they steal identities. Now they demand welfare, free schooling and citizenship.

[Wonder Warthog]

Dupe, dope, and gullible idiot.

[Zeppo]

Jose lied to me and everyone else he worked for, and that's not kosher, especially in a profession where facts and, more elusively, the truth are considered valuable commodities.

"Journalists" consider facts and truth to be valuable commodities?

Really?

Since when?

[ken5050]

How about a story, interviewing a Chronicle and WP reporter who were laid off, while this guy had their job...

[The Working Man]

Yeah, right... Oh My Gosh I was duped!

Think of the LEGAL American who never got the jobs or opportunities that this guy STOLE with his lies and illegal actions.

In many ways being an illegal Immigrant, (Alien), is like being a drug addict who used a gateway drug and got hooked on stronger and stronger stuff. So many people and society at large are injured by their actions to keep on using their addictions.

[Wings-n-Wind]

SFO --- better than Didneyland

Most of the real entertainment is free...

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I would like to know what social security number he has been using for work?

[Dr. Ursus]

Sharon Stones?

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Oh good one, she doesn’t seem to be using it. ;^)

[TigerClaws]

Exactly. 16% unemployment right now. 20 million illegals here. Those are jobs, taxes, etc. for Americans being stolen by illegals.

RATS lose the most to this but those running the show allow it. So do the Repubs who want the cheap labor. Both parties are selling out our country. Pathetic.

Put troops on the border. Build a damn fence. Machine gun anyone invading our country.

[CdMGuy]

Hey Phil, you misspelled a word. No, you are not a dupe. Rather, you are a dope as is your ex-wife.

[Peet]

HEAD: PHIL BRONSTEIN: I was duped by Jose Vargas, illegal immigrant

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Too bad you presstitutes have SOOoooooo destroyed your credibility that I don’t believe you...

[Keith in Iowa]

The real question Bronstein needs to be asked is, “IF you knew his true status at the time, would you have hired Vargas anyway?” - Me-thinks his answer would be, “Yes.”.

[RC51]

The real story is how an American marries a foreigner, she gets green-cards for her parents then the parents bring their son over, legally & their nephew over illegally.

Immigration is a family affair. Most immigrant families I know have a mix of legal & illegal. If you want to solve illegal immigration then make the penalty for getting caught an automatic permanent revocation of all green card holders related to the illegal.

[bjorn14]

Yeah, Phil and you still don’t want the criminal kicked out. You are a dope!

Wanted to protect this trifecta AA hire...minority, gay and illegal!

[SJSAMPLE]

Phil Bronstein is the guy that got duped into marrying that wack-hob Sharon Stone, and then lured by same into a pit of toxic reptiles, which nearly cost him his foot and his life.

Phil needs to take some time off and reevaluate his view on things.

[SJSAMPLE]

Well played, Sir!

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Give the credit to the Doc - he set it up perfectly

[HiJinx]

Ping!

[Paladin2]

"...facts and, more elusively, the truth are considered valuable commodities...."

LOL

[Ann Archy]

Phil needs another bite from a Komodo dragon to get some sense into his liberal airhead.

[RJL]

PHIL BRONSTEIN: I was duped by Jose Vargas, illegal immigrant

I call BS.

If Bronstein knew Jose was an illegal, Bronstein would have kissed him.

[Liz]

Hey, Phil---how many identities does your guy have?

Illegal Jose Madrigal, the Washington state rapist, had some 30 identities.

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REFERENCE Hayward, California woman charged in mass thefts of IDs
Henry K. Lee / Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Oakland Police Dept Mug Shot: Mishel Caviness, Hayward, accused of
running a large-scale operation devoted to stealing people's identities.

HAYWARD, CALIFORNIA -- A Hayward woman has been charged with numerous felony counts for allegedly running an identity-theft operation that created fake Social Security and California identification cards, checks and credit cards. Mishel Caviness, 40, was arrested after an investigation by Oakland police and the U.S. Secret Service.

The probe began when an Oakland city employee reported in January that someone was fraudulently cashing her checks, according to police Officer Ryan Goodfellow and court records. Caviness was identified with the help of surveillance-camera footage from Bay Area stores, police said.

A search of her apartment on the 21000 block of Foothill Boulevard in Hayward last week uncovered a printing operation capable of making fake checks and credit cards, police said. Also found were 900 blank credit cards, personal information belonging to as many as 1,000 people, blank checks and computers, police said.

Alameda County prosecutors charged Caviness with forgery, identity theft, forgery of a driver's license and grand theft. She has a previous conviction for welfare fraud and told police that she is disabled and unemployed. She is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of $325,000 bail.

SOURCE http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/16/BAPP1JGPTT.DTL#ixzz1MotxGM5R Page C - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle