ICE decides not to detain Jose Antonio Vargas

Politico ^ | 10/6/2012 | Katie Glueck

[Menehune56]

Jose Antonio Vargas, the writer and activist who went public last year with his status as an undocumented immigrant, was arrested for a driving infraction in Minnesota on Friday, but federal immigration authorities did not detain him or take any other action, officials said Saturday. Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter who revealed his status in The New York Times Magazine and touched off a debate in the journalistic community, was initially pulled over by a state trooper for driving while wearing head phones, Eric Roeske, public information officer for the Minnesota state patrol, told POLITICO.

[Menehune56]

Wearing headphones while driving, an out of state driver's license canceled due to fraudulent activity, illegally in the country - and not arrested??

[gaijin]

Did we dePort POTUS’ bum aunt or drunk driver uncle yet...?

Anyone know...?

[Steely Tom]

Obvious politics. The WH may not be directly involved, but I bet the regional ICE manager knew how upstairs would want this one played.

[andyk]

The aunt has been given asylum, and the uncle currently has a stay of deportation. He too will be given asylum eventually.

[Andy'smom]

No.

[Gay State Conservative]

I thought employers were subject to huge fines for employing wetbacks.Why hasn't the Compost been fined?

[bgill]

No.

ICE is also refusing to answer calls from Arizona. Mindboggling stupidity. ICE couldn’t find an illegal in a Mexican protest parade.

[USNBandit]

The interesting thing about this is that he committed fraud to get a Washington Driver's license. DMV in Washington seems to have no issues giving illegals driver's licenses, but this guy went one step further. He used Washington's lax licensing standards to enhance the "validity" of his other fraudulent documents.

As background on Mr. Vargas, his family is from the Philippines and sent him to the U.S. to live with family members when he was growing up. I am guessing he would meet the Obama directed "Dreamer" status, but I don't know how his ID fraud works into that.