Dear America
Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · June 17, 2025
***THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER*** ***EXPANDED WITH NEW MATERIAL TO REFLECT TRUMP'S SECOND TERM*** “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 call to arms. “This is not a book about the politics of immigration.
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- Who it’s for
- An intimate, politically alert read that stays human and discussion-ready.
- Genres
- Personal Memoirs, Immigration Policy, Hispanic & Latino Biography
- Published
- HarperCollins, June 17, 2025
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For younger readers: Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card, Indivisible, Everything Sad Is Untrue (a True Story)
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***THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER*** ***EXPANDED WITH NEW MATERIAL TO REFLECT TRUMP'S SECOND TERM*** “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 call to arms.
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“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
Why It Clicks
An intimate, politically alert read that stays human and discussion-ready.
Come here for
- memoir at the edge of personal and political
- good book-club fuel without extra spectacle
Expect
- daily-dip pacing
- a direct, reflective voice
Where it sits
| Immigration Policy | 46% |
|---|---|
| Personal Memoirs | 44% |
| Hispanic & Latino Biography | 24% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Political Lives
- Personal Memoirs
- Modern History
- The Americas History
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Security Studies
- State & Provincial Government
- Civil Liberties
- Human Rights
- Authors
- Jose Antonio Vargas
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- June 17, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Political Lives