Dear America

***THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER***

“This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American.”  —Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow

“l cried reading this book, realizing more fully what my parents endured.” —Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and Where the Past Begins

“This book couldn’t be more timely and more necessary.” —Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author of What Is the What and The Monk of Mokha

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America,” tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal memoir and call to arms.

“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.

After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.”

—Jose Antonio Vargas, from Dear America
An Undocumented American’s Memoir: Go behind the headlines with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas as he chronicles over two decades of lying, passing, and hiding in the country he calls home.A Coming Out Story: Discover the story of a man who came out twice: first as gay, and then as what he calls "the most famous undocumented immigrant in America."The Human Side of Immigration Policy: This is not a book about politics, but about the psychological homelessness created by a broken system and what it means to live without a country to call your own.Beyond the Border Crisis: With new material covering Donald Trump’s presidency and the threat of Project 2025, Vargas’s deeply personal account is a necessary and timely call for a more honest conversation about immigration.