A Pulitzer-prize winner journalist comes out as an undocumented immigrant

and his story is being passed around at an unprecedented rate.

Jose Antonio Vargas, a former reporter with The Washington Post and several newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, has published a first-person account in the New York Times Magazine of what it means to be living illegally in the United States. I've covered immigration for over a decade, and rarely have I seen this type of narrative, from a person who has achieved so much and has so much at stake, in such a visible place. No wonder it's being posted and reposted all over the Internet.

Vargas came to the United States when he was 12, and what's most touching of Vargas' story is the extent to which his teachers attempted to make him feel welcome, accepted, even when he came out of the undocumented closet. The choir director at Mountain View High changed plans to go to Japan and instead took the group to Hawaii so Vargas could attend -- without proper documentation, he can't leave the United States.

Vargas came out partially to promote his new organization, Define American, which he hopes will help change the conversation about immigration in this country -- undocumented immigrants can be found in many echelons of society. And to promote the Dream Act, the federal proposal to give legal status to young people who were brought to this country illegally as children.

It will be interesting to follow the conversation that ensues. Some very thoughtful comments have already been posted on the story. Some are the usual reaction. If nothing else, perhaps it will be another push to approve the Dream Act.