In a June 2011 New York Times Magazine essay, Vargas wrote that he is an undocumented immigrant. He describes coming to the US at the age of 12, unaware until the age of 16 that his immigration status was not valid. He states that he revealed his status in order to promote dialogue about the United States' broken immigration system, and advocate for the DREAM Act, which would help children in similar circumstances have a path to citizenship available to them.
Vargas was born in Antipolo, the Philippines. In 1993, when Vargas was a child of 12, his mother sent him to live with his grandparents in the United States without obtaining authorization for him to stay in the country permanently. He grew up in Mountain View, California, and attended Crittenden Middle School and Mountain View High School. Vargas did not learn that he was an undocumented immigrant until 1997, when he attempted to obtain a California driver's license with fraudulent identity documents provided by his family. He kept his immigration status secret, pursuing his education and trying to fit in as an American, with the help of friends and teachers, using false documents including a green card, Filipino passport, and a driver’s license that helped him to avoid deportation and remain in the US.
In 1998 he began an internship at the Mountain View Voice, a local newspaper, and he later became a “copy boy” for the San Francisco Chronicle. Vargas attended San Francisco State University, gaining a degree in Political Science and Black Studies. He interned for the Philadelphia Daily News and later The Washington Post, who hired him in 2004, immediately after his college graduation.
In 2011 he wrote an essay for The New York Times Sunday Magazine, revealing that he is an undocumented immigrant who has spent years hiding it, in hopes that his acknowledgment of his status might raise awareness of the problem faced by undocumented people brought to America as innocent children. He is a founder of Define American,[6] a project aimed at facilitating dialogue about the DREAM Act, which would allow such individuals a path to citizenship through education or service in the military. The essay received much media attention and was at the top of the Times "most-emailed" list the week it was published.
Vargas came out as gay in high school in 1999.
