So last week when Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his wife, Margarita Zavala, were in Washington for a formal state visit, a heartbreaking scene unfolded at a local elementary school in Langley, Virginia, where Michelle Obama and Ms. Zavala were paying a visit to a group of second graders.

During a Q & A section with the U.S. first lady, one little girl asked a question that pierced straight through to the core of the immigration debate:

(See the video here via the Washington Post.)

Girl: My mom says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn’t has papers.

Michelle Obama: Yeah well that’s something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That’s exactly right.

G: But my mom doesn’t have papers.

MO: Yeah well we have to work on that, we have to fix that. And everybody’s got to work together in Congress to make sure that happens.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: It’s about families.

But in case that wasn’t clear enough, a little gem that followed in the MSNBC broadcast following that clip made the case for reform even more directly.

In response to a question of concern about the fate of the girl’s mother by MSNBC anchor Tamron Brown, NBC congressional reporter Mike Viqueira gave the bone-headed response, “I’m sure the hunt is going to be on, unfortunately or fortunately depending on which way you look at it.”

Really, Mike? Is this your attempt at journalistic balance? I am looking forward to hearing the fortunate part about that little girl’s mother being “hunted.”

Say it with me now, boys and girls: Immigration. Reform. Now.