Jose Antonio Vargas: My Detention Wasn't a Stunt
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant who was detained at a southern Texas airport this week said Wednesday the incident wasn't a stunt.
Asked how it was possible that he didn't know he would get extra scrutiny at the border airport, Jose Antonio Vargas told CNN's "New Day" that he didn't anticipate being detained in McAllen, Texas, after visiting a shelter where undocumented immigrant children were being held.
"Is it a stunt to get on a plane to leave to try to get out of south Texas?" he asked. About his detention, he added: "That's the risk undocumented people take every day."
On Tuesday, U.S. Border Patrol agents detained the journalist-turned-activist at the McAllen airport after he told them he was in the country illegally, officials said.
Vargas became an outspoken advocate pushing for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws in 2011, when he revealed he was undocumented - having entered the United States from the Philippines as a child - in a column for The New York Times Magazine.
Vargas at the very latest knew by last week, after he'd arrived in McAllen on Thursday, that he might have difficulty leaving the area by plane or by land. In a piece that we wrote for Politico, he said acquaintances informed him after he arrived that border patrol agents check IDs at the airport, and that immigration checkpoints are set up along roads within 45 miles of the city.
Stores May Have Received Tainted Beef
The U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service on Wednesday named retailers in nine states that may have received tainted beef.
Two days earlier, the FSIS announced that 1.8 million pounds of ground beef products were being recalled on fears that they could be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
The federal agency named five stores in nine states. They are as follows:
- Gordon Food Service Marketplace stores in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin;
- Surf N Turf Market in Sebring, Florida;
- Giorgio's Italian Delicatessen in Stuart, Florida;
- M Sixty Six General Store in Orleans, Michigan;
- Buchtel Food Mart in Buchtel, Ohio.
Recalled cases of beef from Wolverine Packing Company in Detroit were produced between March 31, 2014, and April 18, 2014.
Based on investigations, 11 people across four states are suspected to have been sickened by the product.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the meat is in the process of being removed from store shelves, and until that process is over, consumers should return or destroy meat that has the code EST.2574B and has a production date between March 31-April 18, 2014. The meat is sold under a variety of labels.
The list released Wednesday is not final, the spokesperson said. More establishments will be added as the USDA continues an investigation.
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