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FeedJuan Vargas
Tom Blair: One of 10 children raised by immigrant parents on a border-town chicken ranch. Are you ever surprised by how far you’ve come?
Juan Vargas: Shocked, really, not surprised. I tell Adrienne all the time that I’m really happy, but also honored. I’ve been lucky to be able to get an education, to work with people I respect and like—and that my life so far has been fantastic. I’ve had a great ride.
TB: Your parents were legally documented immigrants from Mexico?
JV: They came here under what was known as the old Bracero Program. Back then it was a lot easier to immigrate if you had a sponsor. They were legal. My mom became a citizen. My father is still a Mexican national. My grandfather came to this country in 1929 through the Bracero Program. They were in their little town in central Mexico, and there was a table that an American had placed in the square outside the church, and the man wanted to know who wanted to go work in the United States. If you signed up, you took an immediate physical, and if you had no medical problems, they’d tell you where to show up. My father was told to go to Tijuana, his name would be on a list, and he’d be assigned a place to work. He was assigned first to a tomato farm on Otay Mesa.
TB: A program not unlike what some people propose today.
JV: A lot of people feel that’s what we need—some orderly, legal way for immigrants to be able to come to the United States to take the jobs others among us won’t take.
TB: Illegal immigration has been a hot topic in this border region for decades. But it’s only recently caught fire as a national issue. Why do you think it’s come to the forefront now?
JV: Because it’s been simmering for so long, and no one’s taken any measures to really address it honestly and comprehensively. People are coming in illegally, and that shouldn’t happen. At the same time, we have all these jobs going unfilled unless people from other countries take them. They’re very low-paid, back-breaking jobs most Americans won’t take. I’m not going to go work in the fields in 120-degree heat and get paid minimum wage. Neither are my children. None of us will take those jobs. But we’ve got to have somebody do them, or we won’t have our tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables. So we need to look backward—look at our history. We had a program that worked.
TB: In the past, you’ve taken a pretty tough stand against the influx of so many undocumented immigrants, mostly from Mexico. Your opponent in the congressional race, Bob Filner, has taken a softer stance. You’re Hispanic; he’s not. Do you see some irony there?
JV: The way I look at it, I’m realistic. Look, there’s a way to fix this. How do we fix it? Through legal means. We need to bring down the rhetoric and animosity, and bring rationality to the debate.
TB: Do you favor amnesty for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in this country? And if not, what would you do about the problem?
JV: The bill that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee sets up a process I think will work. Make people jump through hoops before they’re able to stay here in any long-term sense. Make sure they’re not criminals, that they pay any taxes they may not have paid and that they get fined for coming here illegally. Once you do all that, then people can begin the process toward permanent residency. We want to make sure the people we ultimately allow to live here are good people, who’ll abide by the laws and be good neighbors.
TB: Pete Wilson made illegal immigration a focus in his run for president in 2000, and many observers believed it was his undoing. Is the issue a political no-win? Even if you do get some of the people to jump through hoops, how do you handle the ones who say, “No, I won’t jump”? You’ve got 11 million people to deal with here.
JV: That’s why you have to look at fines. You say, ‘We’re going to create a legal process, and that process has to be enforced. So if you want to legalize your status here, we want to make sure you’re a good person. You don’t have a criminal record. You pay your taxes. You pay your fines. And if you do all this, we put you on the road to legalizing your status. And if you don’t, we’re going to fine the people who hire you.’ With stiff fines. So no rational person would hire that illegal.
TB: What’s your take on the student walkouts? Are they justified?
JV: No. I think it’s stupid. Those kids would be best off back in the classroom. These kids who are out there—especially the ones creating havoc—should be in class studying. If they have issues, they should write about them. Here’s a great opportunity to teach kids to write well, and articulate well. They don’t need to be out there causing problems for themselves and everybody else.
TB: Does it trouble you that those opposing regulations make no distinction between legal and illegal immigration?
JV: Of course. And one of the things that’s sad is this: The waters right now are so murky between the immigrant who’s here legally, who’s working hard and playing by all the rules, and someone who’s not. Right now the rhetoric, the hatred, the vitriol is so high the issue is not being addressed honestly, in a comprehensive way, so this is what you get. The federal government really has failed.
TB: You’ve long been a supporter of Megan’s Law, which increased public access to information on registered sex offenders. But many perceive this as a Republican issue, with Democrats opposed to making the law permanent and strengthening it to give the public more complete information. Is the law strong enough?
JV: I don’t think it is. I think you really need to know those people who are going to commit sexual crimes, especially violent sexual crimes. I think we should know where they live, what they look like, when they committed their crimes. We should have the ability to track them. I sat through a couple of trials of sexually violent predators. And the interesting thing is that all the psychiatrists and psychologists say there is no cure. With the best treatment, these people will commit half the crimes they used to. So they commit five crimes instead of 10. What does that tell you? These people should never be out among the public. They should be either locked up for the rest of their lives, or in some hospital where they don’t have access to children they’re going to harm. And they don’t have a right to privacy. You have a right to privacy if you haven’t committed a crime.
TB: How goes your congressional primary race against Bob Filner? Is the third time going to be the charm? What do the polls tell you?
JV: The polls tell us we’re running neck-and-neck. Real close. I think I have a great shot. He’s an incumbent; he should be way ahead in the polls. An incumbent who’s tied at this point is in trouble. I think we’re going to beat him. This time is the charm.
TB: You’re both Democrats. What’s the biggest difference between you?
JV: I always tell people to look at the record. What has Bob actually accomplished? He’s been in office longer than I have. What bills has he passed, what laws has he passed, what things has he done to make this a better community, state and country? He’s always saying he’s fighting for us. But he’s fighting with everyone and accomplishing nothing.
TB: Do you think the incumbent congressman has done a bad job?
JV: I think he’s done a terrible job. He has voted on many issues the way I would have voted. But voting is not your only job as an elected official. It’s getting things done. He’s been touting this “Jobs Train” to the east for 14 years, and the thing doesn’t move. There’s no Jobs Train there. It’s a moribund track. There’s no commerce moving. He hasn’t done a thing after seven terms. He sits on the very congressional committee to fund that train and get it moving. And he has not been able to get the support of other members of the delegation to get it done.
TB: Is the Democratic Party neutral in the primary, or are they helping Filner?
JV: I have the support of a lot of Democrats in the state who are my colleagues, state assembly members and senators. Bob has the support of most of the congress members. The state party has not endorsed yet, but I expect they’ll endorse him. He’s the incumbent. But I’ve received no pressure from Congress members; I’ve had zero calls from Democratic members saying, “Don’t run.” Not one.
TB: Ralph Inzunza, your former chief of staff and city council successor, is appealing his conviction on federal corruption charges in the Strippergate scandal. His brother, Nick, also under fire, has dropped out of the race to succeed you in the state Assembly. You’ve been a close friend to the Inzunza family. How are they holding up?
JV: Ralph and I had a bit of a falling out, to be honest—when it was first made known Ralph was trying to change the no-touch law in strip clubs. You know, as a councilman, I was the main proponent of making laws stricter for strip clubs. And Ralph was working with me. And the no-touch rule came out of that. I was very proud of that. So I was flabbergasted that he would try to undo a law he knew was important to me. I’ve probably talked to him four times recently. But we haven’t been as close. And Nick and I have always been friends, but not as close as Ralph and I were.
TB: No candidate likes to talk about losing. But if you should lose—either in the primary or general—you’ll be without a job, termed out of the state Assembly. If you weren’t in politics, what would you be doing?
JV: I’ve had a pretty varied, weird background. I always thought I’d be a priest, and then I decided I wanted to get married. And those two don’t fit. I’ve been an attorney, a teacher in the Bronx. Would I go back to being an attorney or a teacher? I don’t know. I think I’d probably look at a career change again. I’ve never been afraid of tackling a new job. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is build a house. Maybe I’d do that. But I’ve never taken a job just to make money.
TB: You and your wife, Adrienne, have two daughters, Rosa and Helena. Do you have any plans to uphold the family tradition—maybe build a really big house and have eight more?
JV: You know, it took us five years to have Rosa. And it wasn’t as if we weren’t trying. We’ll take all the children we can get.
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