Our Story
It all started with a question: How do you define American?
Define American was founded in 2011 by Jose Antonio Vargas, who recruited three media professional friends to launch a campaign to bring U.S. citizen allies' voices into the national conversation on immigration in order to fix a broken system.
Our co-founders consisted of:
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated producer.
Jake Brewer was a pioneer in the civic tech space and a senior technology advisor for the Obama White House.
Jehmu Greene is the CEO and founder of the non-profit We Defend Truth and a progressive political analyst for Fox News.
Alicia Menendez is an anchor for MSNBC, the creator and host of the Latina to Latina podcast, and the author of The Likeability Trap.
We sparked nationwide conversations around immigration and the power of visibility.
Jose Antonio Vargas, founder of Define American, and 35 other undocumented or formerly undocumented Americans appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine in June 2012 with the bold title of, “We Are Americans*,” an initiative orchestrated by Define American and America’s Voice.
In 2011, Jose came out as undocumented in a New York Times Magazine essay “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” shattering public perceptions about undocumented people.
By asking hard questions around identity, humanity and how we treat one another in this country, we began to reframe what it means to be undocumented in America.
Watch "Documented"
To shift the conversation away from politics and focus on the value of humanizing the millions that now call America their home, we created content that highlights their individual stories.
See more videosWe advocated for those without a voice, creating groundbreaking campaigns and taking to the streets to engage communities across the country.
Define American chapter members and leaders took part in the 2019 Home Is Here rally outside the Supreme Court.
We launched grassroots advocacy work and created a chapters program to engage young people on immigration.
And we continued to ask questions, interrogating issues of race and identity in a demographically shifting country.
Directed by Define American founder Jose Antonio Vargas, White People asked young Americans to speak candidly about “whiteness,” race, and equity.
Watch "White People"We believe in the power of media to humanize the immigrant narrative, one story at a time.
