Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas will be speaking about immigration legislation 6 p.m Monday at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service in Pugh Hall.
Vargas is not being paid for the event, which is free and open to the public. There is space for 250 people in the auditorium, which is about how many are expected to attend, said Shelby Taylor, digital communications director for the Bob Graham Center.
However, if needed, classrooms in Pugh Hall will be available for people to watch a live-stream of the event, Taylor said. People can also watch the live streaming of the talk from bobgrahamcenter.ufl.edu.
Vargas is the founder of Define American, a campaign that focuses on bringing "new voices to the immigration conversation" to try to "fix a broken system," according to defineamerican.com.
Kelly Kirschner, former mayor of Sarasota, will be moderating the event.
Kirschner is the director of UnidosNow.org, an organization with the mission to "to mobilize southwest Florida's Hispanic and associated communities to integrate and access the benefits of the state's civic, economic and cultural weave," according to the website.
Vargas revealed himself as an undocumented immigrant in an article he wrote for The New York Times Magazine in 2011.
"I think moving into the 2012 presidential election that the issue of immigration is going to be a hot-button issue," Taylor said. "And so we wanted to have a speaker who was very much involved in that."
