What to do with Vargas

Interesting conundrum for the Obama ICE patrol..

They announced recently that 2400 illegals have been rounded up over the past month. Then today there was also a story about a person shot to death trying to climb a border fence along the Mexican border in California by a Border Patrol Agent. Obviously all those folks met the cold, uncaring arm of the law. Some are even blaming the huge southwestern wildfires on illegal alien trafficking.

But today we also found out that a former Washington Post/Huffington Post reporter--who owns a Pulitzer Prize--is actually an illegal. Not only that, but he got help from California state officials:

His grandfather imagined the fake documents would help Vargas get low-wage jobs. College seemed out of reach, until Vargas told Mountain View High School Principal Pat Hyland and school district Superintendent Rich Fisher about his problem. They became mentors and surrogate parents, eventually finding a scholarship fund for high-achieving students that allowed him to attend San Francisco State University.
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The newspaper required a driver's license, so Vargas said his network of mentors helped him get one from Oregon, which has less stringent requirements than some other states.

The bold is a creative description of what others might call criminal conspirators. But he seems like a smart, sensitive individual who considers himself American even without papers.

So, what's the next move for Obama ICE? Will they publicly deport a Pulitzer winner and public figure and be left to explain why the other poor bastard trying to cross the border fence deserved a slug (he probably just wanted a scholarship, too). Or will they try to let the story fade away like the undocumented maid who helped scuttle Meg Whitman's chances for governor of California?

The money's on the latter, but the money's also on liberals and perhaps even Obama trying to parlay Mr. Vargas' story and his new "Define American" campaign into amnesty "immigration reform" at some point in the very near future. That of course would keep Mr. Vargas in the news, not allowing the Whitman strategy to work, but then again he might get more press by being deported. Of course that would be pegged on Obama, in effect defeating his status as a reformer.

If only someone could find a way to blame Bush. Wait, Bush was also a reformer! Cheney? No--maybe the Tea Party. Obama can claim he was forced to deport Vargas because America is full of xenophobes clinging to their guns and God who don't want anymore brown people around unless they are cutting the grass. Hey, if anyone could get away with it....

MORE 6/22/11

It appears that while everyone was celebrating TGIF Obama's ICE issued a clarification directive to exercise prosecutorial discretion on whom to deport. There's a long list of do-not-touchers, which you can find by going to this link and drilling down. Can we question Mr. Vargas' timing now? It appears he has nothing to worry about.