Pulitzer Prize Winner Detained At Texas Border

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has lived in the US without legal documentation since he was 12 has been detained by Border Patrol agents at a Texas airport.

Jose Antonio Vargas was taken into custody on Tuesday morning in McAllen, a city just across the border from Mexico, officials confirmed.

The film-maker and immigration activist was in Texas highlighting the plight of undocumented people currently overwhelming the US border.

Philippines-born Vargas tweeted as he prepared to board a flight to Los Angeles: "About to go thru security at McAllen Airport. I don't know what's going to happen."

Vargas was part of the Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer in 2008 for their breaking news reporting on the mass shooting at Virginia Tech university a year earlier.

He revealed three years ago that he was undocumented in a piece for the New York Times Magazine.

Vargas was released several hours later.

In a statement on the Facebook page of Define American, a group he founded, Vargas wrote: "I've been released by Border Patrol. I want to thank everyone who stands by me, and the undocumented immigrants of south Texas and across the country.

"Our daily lives are filled with fear in simple acts such as getting on an airplane to go home to our family."

Border Patrol spokesman Omar Zamora said Vargas was held "after he stated that he was in the country illegally," adding that he "was processed and provided with a Notice to Appear before an immigration judge".

Meanwhile, demonstrations against the ongoing Central American migrant surge were held in Michigan and Arizona on Tuesday.

Anti-illegal immigration groups gathered near the Arizona town of Oracle amid reported official plans to house undocumented children at a local school for troubled youths.

But pro-immigration advocates also turned up to show the migrants they are welcome in the country.

County Sheriff Paul Babeu has raised fears some of the migrants could be gang affiliated.

In Vassar, Michigan, dozens of protesters - some reportedly carrying firearms - rallied against plans for a local facility to house undocumented Central Americans.

More than 174,000 people without documentation, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, have been arrested in Texas' Rio Grande Valley this year.

An estimated 57,000 of those have been unaccompanied children.

The Central American exodus has been spurred in part by drug violence and poverty.

But anecdotal evidence suggests many of the immigrants believe Obama administration policies will allow them to stay once they reach the US.

The White House, however, has said illegal immigrants are not welcome in the US, and on Monday some 40 people were deported from New Mexico to Honduras on a charter flight.

They were the first group of Central Americans sent home under stepped-up US efforts to crack down on the influx of undocumented people.

The migrant crisis has inflamed the debate over whether to approve immigration reform to cover some 11 million undocumented people already in the US.