Pulitzer winner’s license revoked

SEATTLE – Washington state has canceled the driver’s license of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who publicly said he is an illegal immigrant.

Officials opened an investigation after Jose Antonio Vargas’ essay about his background was published in the New York Times Magazine in June, Department of Licensing spokeswoman Christine Anthony said Thursday.

Vargas wrote in the essay that he obtained a driver’s license in Washington earlier this year after his Oregon license expired.

“We conducted an investigation and concluded that he wasn’t residing at the address he provided us,” Anthony said.

The Licensing Department sent Vargas a letter requesting proof of residency, and the letter was returned. The state canceled his license July 18.

In his essay, Vargas wrote about worrying that his Oregon license would expire.

“Early this year, just two weeks before my 30th birthday, I won a small reprieve: I obtained a driver’s license in the state of Washington. The license is valid until 2016. This offered me five more years of acceptable identification – but also five more years of fear, of lying to people I respect and institutions that trusted me, of running away from who I am,” Vargas wrote.

The Seattle Times first reported the Licensing Department’s action Thursday.

Vargas wrote in his essay that he emigrated from the Philippines in 1993 when he was 12 years old at the wish of his mother. He moved to California, where his grandparents had arranged forged documents for him. When he was 16, Vargas wrote, he found out that he was in the country illegally after he tried to obtain a driver’s permit with those documents.

Vargas did not respond to an email sent by The Associated Press. A spokesman pointed to a blog post on Vargas’ campaign website in which he said he learned Wednesday that his license had been revoked and it was a reminder of the “collective struggle” immigrants like him face.

“It’s not unexpected, given how I laid out in detail how I’ve been able to live, work and survive as an undocumented immigrant in our country,” he said. “Still, it’s a sad feeling. In some ways, my driver’s license has been my life line.”