The New York Times’ Bill Carter and Jacques Steinberg write about Lou Dobbs and his Immigration crusade…

The nation’s most prominent opponent of current immigration policy began his day yesterday on the “Today” show on NBC, debating a Hispanic defender of illegal immigrants. He moved on to “American Morning” on CNN to denounce a bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday as “an amnesty program.”

Lou Dobbs, the CNN anchor, a central figure in the debate over immigration policy.
By nightfall he was on a plane headed to Mexico, where he intended to assess critically the planned discussions on the issue between President Bush and President Vicente Fox of Mexico.

This central figure in the increasingly fractious debate over future immigration policy was not a senator or congressman, nor even a lobbyist on either side of the issue. It was instead, a television news anchor, Lou Dobbs of CNN.