Drudge Report confuses immigration activist with former L.A. mayor

A tweet from the Drudge Report Tuesday morning misidentified famed immigration rights activist Jose Antonio Vargas as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The Drudge Report tweet was meant to promote an article written by Vargas that was published Monday by Politico Magazine, in which Vargas explained why he allowed himself to be detained by border officials this summer as a flood of immigrants from Central American countries crossed the Texas border, sparking a divisive immigration debate across the country.

But when Drudge took to Twitter, it confused Vargas with the two-term Los Angeles mayor, who now works at the University of Southern California.

Vargas quickly fired back on his account.

Vargas, a 33-year-old native of the Philippines who entered the United States as a child but never gained legal residency, outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in an essay published by the New York Times in 2011. He was detained, questioned and ultimately released by authorities in McAllen, Texas, while trying to board a flight to Los Angeles.

In the Politico piece, Vargas dismissed the notion that he had conducted a publicity stunt.

"Getting arrested and detained for trying to board a domestic flight is not a stunt, much like getting arrested and detained for driving without a driver’s license is not a stunt. It is a daily reality faced by undocumented immigrants," he wrote in Politico. "The only difference is, my arrest was considered breaking news."

Drudge has not responded to Vargas' tweet. Attempts to contact Villaraigosa were not successful.