Jose Antonio Vargas has been detained by border patrol in McAllen, Texas — just as he suspected might happen.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and documentarian, Vargas announced that he was an undocumented immigrant in a famous 2011 essay in the NY Times, and has since become a passionate advocate for immigration reform and refugees’ rights.

Also read: Obama Heckled in San Francisco on Immigration Policies

Vargas, whose documentary “Documented” aired on CNN in June, traveled down to the Texas border to report on and advocate for the thousands of children who had crossed into the United States only to be detained.

Here’s a photo of @joseiswriting in handcuffs, because the Border Patrol has nothing more pressing to do apparently pic.twitter.com/dN8KewqeZr – Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) July 15, 2014

In an essay for Politico, Vargas wrote that he anticipated having trouble with all the security checkpoints at the airport when he tried to leave McAllen, which has become the epicenter of the latest immigration battle.

“As the day wore on,” he wrote, recalling a conversation with a fellow advocate, “as the reality of my predicament sunk in, Tania spelled it out for me: You might not get through airport security, where Customs and Border Protection (CPB) also checks for IDs, and you will definitely not get through the immigration checkpoints set up within 45 miles of this border town. At these checkpoints, you will be asked for documentation.”

See video: Stephen Colbert Slams Illegal Immigration as ‘Filthy Act of Border Penetration’

Vargas is an immigrant from the Philippines, who came to America as a child but is not eligible for the Obama administration’s deferred action program.