U.S. immigration authorities held Pulitzer-Prize winning author and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas at a Texas airport on Tuesday morning while visiting a refugee community there.

Operatives of the U.S. Border Patrol took Vargas under custody after attempting to fly out of McAllen airport to Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, according to an immigration group.

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The journalist was with a camera crew from his group, Define American, and flew into the border town to film undocumented minors being kept there by immigration authorities.

Immigration advocacy group United We Dream called for Vargas' "immediate release," pointing out that there were thousands of others who were in the same shoes as Vargas.

"We stand in solidarity with Jose Antonio and demand for his immediate release," said Cristina Jimenez, managing director of United We Dream, in a statement. "But we must remember that there are thousands of people along the border that live with this same fear every day."

"Our undocumented community along the border is trapped within its own country, unable to leave and surrounded by checkpoints," the statement continued. "It's immoral that people aren't free to move around the country they know as home because of a system that seeks to criminalize them."

In his Twitter account, Vargas wrote he was about to go through airport security, and the IDs he had was his Philippine passport and his pocket-sized U.S. constitution.

A photo of Vargas is circulating on Twitter, showing the journalist handcuffed from behind by immigration authorities.

Tagsimmigration, U.S. immigration policy, Immigration Reform, Jose Antonio Vargas, US Border Patrol