A good friend with whom I debate, but who disagrees with me on patriotic immigration reform, gleefully phoned me on June 26th to tell me to be sure to read that day's NY Times Magazine story My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant ,by Jose Antonio Vargas.

You know the story: Vargas was sent here at age 12 by his Filipina mother to live with her parents—both in the US legally—but he not "documented", to use the PC euphemism. By hard work and being bright [VDARE.COM note: and with a little help from Affirmative Action and the American taxpayer] he ultimately thrived.

Isn't this the kind of immigrant we want? The NYT describes Mr. Vargas thus: "Jose Antonio Vargas is a former reporter for The Washington Post and shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. He founded Define American, which seeks to change the conversation on immigration reform. "

 Folks, if you think this writer, a Democrat, would attack such a career, think again. My only emotion: sadness for Vargas. And my main complaint is that the mishandling of our immigration laws, beginning with the fateful changes made in 1965, have led to sad stories like this.

 But in his June 26th segment of CBS's 60 Minutes, The Hidden America, [Watch it here]CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, citing the Brookings Institution as his source, has another powerful report: nearly 25% of America's children are living in poverty! [Families of the Recession: Unemployed Parents & Their Children]His interviews with children and their parents about losing their homes—not having enough to eat—facing the embarrassment of school friends knowing that they are living in cheap motel rooms or even in their van—provided some of the most poignant TV reporting that I have ever seen.

When Pelley, a veteran of all kinds of tough reporting assignments, talked to a group of teenagers in Florida, he (and I) were moved as seldom happens by TV.

"How many of you are often hungry?" he asked. And among the thirty or so young teens assembled, many hands went up. Several tearfully explained the problem of not having enough food—sleeplessness, stomach pains, etc.

This was truly top notch TV.

But it could have been better—if Pelley had tied this disgraceful situation to its root cause: out-of-control-mass immigration.

I suddenly got very angry. Here we are putting our own citizens' kids into increasing poverty—and our arrogant, feckless Federal government has decided to allow the importation of perhaps 2 million aliens, legal and illegal, every year. Despite the Great Recession—from which, most economists agree, we are not yet recovered.

Instead of accepting a reasonable number of legal immigrants, perhaps 300,000 at maximum, our Federal government has allowed Big Business, Big Religion and Big Ethnic lobbyists to persuade it to keep that horrific annual flow going.

The comments thread on the 60 Minutes segment was of course mixed. But all seemed much moved by the segment. Examples:

• "This is so sad, I can not believe what I was watching. America send so much money to other countries and right here in America this is happening. When is it going to change? No wonder the children grow up with negative thoughts."

• "It breaks my heart to see what's happening in this country. Our so-called elected officials send billions overseas to people who hate us, instead of helping our own...When is someone in Washington going to wake up and see what's happening here at home... God Help Us No one in Washington will."

One viewer quoted the famous philosopher, Will Durant: "A civilization cannot be destroyed from without until it has been destroyed from within". And then went on to cite the growing loss of civil liberties reported in author Naomi Wolf's book, The End Of America.

But no-one mentioned the root cause of the problem: Too many people coming without jobs and crowding out citizen workers by accepting low wages.

Bloody simple and obvious. Adding 140 million immigrants since 1965, making our population 44% bigger in just 41 years, has put a strain on every aspect of our lives—taxes, crowding, environmental decline, language and other forms of  cultural assimilation....the list goes on and on.

If you aren't angry yet, you've not been paying attention.

Here was one of America's leading newspapers, the New York Times, continuing to flog this issue with a sob story about a successful "immigrant"—"illegal alien" to you and to ordinary Americans.

What about the Rule of Law? What about 25% of our kids not getting the proper start in life?

And here was CBS' Pelley, who could well have used this powerful piece as an educable moment and asked: "Why are there so many people out of work? Why can't we start to replace those 7 million lost jobs since the start of the Great Recession with citizens, instead of aggravating the situation by importing millions more immigrants? "

But he did not.

Truly, the Lame Stream Media.

Fortunately, there are many ways to get the facts nowadays—for example, VDARE.com. And in the end, only citizen action at the polls can fix this disgraceful travesty.

And as for Mr Vargas, I personally wish him well. Yes, his life was cruelly shadowed by his illegal status. There are undoubtedly illegal alien hardship cases that do require special adjudication.

But pushing this article as a justification for another massive amnesty, as the NY T was clearly doing, is certainly not something our country should fall for.

Recall that the 1986 amnesty for 3 million illegal aliens brought us up to 12 million. Using the same ratios, anyone up for 48 million in 25 years?

Mr. Vargas need not worry about being deported—the Obama Administration is not enforcing our immigration laws right now anyway.

Thus the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) recently (June 23) released a memorandum from the head of the ICE union revealing an appalling story that likely won't get reported in the MSM—either the New York Times or CBS News:

[VDARE.com note: The New York Times last reported on union resistance to the stealth amnesty in August 2010, CBS News hasn't reported it ever.]

"ICE union slams Morton's prosecutorial discretion policy"

June 23, 2011

"Agents say the policy is a "law enforcement nightmare' developed by the Administration to win votes at the expense of sound and responsible law enforcement policy. 'The desires of foreign nationals illegally in the United States were the framework from which these policies were developed,' [Chris] Crane [President of the National ICE Council, representing approximately 7,000 ICE agents, officers and employees] said, 'the result is a means for every person here illegally to avoid arrest or detention, as officers we will never know who we can or cannot arrest….Our officers are already under orders not to make arrests or even talk to foreign nationals in most cases unless another agency has already arrested them; you won't find that written in any public ICE policy…I think the writing is on the wall for every person concerned about good government and effective immigration reforms…we are asking everyone to please email or call your Congressman and Senators immediately and ask them to help stop what's happening at ICE, we desperately need your help.' "

Good grief, Mr. Obama, how blatant will you get?

Forget the MSM—did any Republican candidate hear that question?

My good friend, I thank you for suggesting I read the Vargas article—it allowed me to articulate something that perhaps by reading this you will understand.

Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.