Border Patrol release undocumented journalist Jose Antonio Vargas

This image shows Border Patrol agents arresting Jose Antonio Vargas at the airport Tuesday. (Twitter/@ryangrim)

Vargas was once an unaccompanied minor himself. He revealed in a New York Times Magazine article published in 2011 that he came to the U.S. from the Philippines without his mother.

Frustrated and disturbed by the way the unaccompanied minors crisis at the border has been handled both by politicians and the media, Vargas wanted to go to Texas to share his own story.

“I wanted to help change the narrative of the conversation and, with a camera crew, share stories from the shelter and its volunteers,” he wrote in Politico Magazine on Friday.

But now, as he tries to make his way back home, Vargas is essentially trapped at the border.

That’s because in order to be able to leave McAllen, he needs to pass through one of the immigration checkpoints set up within 45 miles of the border town. He also can’t leave by plane because in order to get through security, Customs and Border Protection will ask him for an ID and about his immigration status.

Vargas is ‘the most privileged undocumented immigrant’

Vargas has been living in the U.S. since he was 12. He is now 33. He does not qualify for the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program because he doesn’t meet the age requirement.

Though he is one of the 11.7 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S., he considers himself to be “the most privileged undocumented immigrant in the country.” He explains this is because the visibility he has been receiving over the last few years has protected him.

“While hundreds of thousands of immigrants have been detained and deported in the past three years, I produced and directed a documentary film, “Documented,” which was shown in theaters and aired on CNN less than two weeks ago,” he wrote in Politico Magazine. “I founded a media and culture campaign, Define American, to elevate how we talk about immigration and citizenship in a changing America. And I’ve been traveling non-stop for three years, visiting more than 40 states.”

SEE ALSO: Texas lawmakers propose bill to help solve child migrant crisis

Cristina Jimenez, managing director of United We Dream, said in a statement that her organization stood in solidarity with Vargas and demanded that he be released immediately. She also noted that there are thousands of more undocumented immigrants who live along the border and often find themselves in the same situation as Vargas.

“Our undocumented community along the border is trapped within its own country, unable to leave and surrounded by checkpoints,” Jimenez stated. “It’s immoral that people aren’t free to move around the country they know as home because of a system that seeks to criminalize them.”

Luis Maldonado, a DACA recipient who lives in McAllen, said he knows many undocumented immigrants, including friends and family members, who haven’t left McAllen in years fearing they’ll be detained at one of the checkpoints.

“I know firsthand the benefits of DACA, the simple right to drive to San Antonio without fearing family separation, and I want thousands more in my community to feel the same way,” he said.

SEE ALSO: 4 ways Republicans want to stem flow of unaccompanied minors