fred de sam lazaro: in downtown beijing on the 20th floor of a high-rise, one of china's senior environmental reporters is becoming a buddhist. [doorbell rings] liu jianqiang: hi. fred: hi. liu: fred? hi. fred: good to meet you. liu: nice to see you. fred: likewise. liu jianqiang is an investigative journalist. his first story about the environment was an exposÉ about illegal dam construction on the upper yangtze river. it made national headlines. his hard-hitting stories eventually got him fired, so he continued his work as the beijing editor of china dialogue, an online international journal. [liu speaking chinese] fred: but t after 10 y years of reporting, he was feeling burned out.. [liu speaking chinese] translator: i think that our environmental activists and those who work for public welfare need more powerfulul spiritual supppport. why? every day what we do mamay be gooood deeds which h give us positive energrgy, but meanwnwhe what we are facing is thee darkest side of the world. every day what we see is polluted air, polluted rivers, and the slaughter of wild animals. this kind of n

special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports on what such a mass deportation would mean for that coury and for the families that are caught in the middle, having grown up in the united states. >> reporter: every weekday morning, the velasco children open their books at the dining table. their mother vanessa leading the class. aside from two years in a nearby hchool to pick up engl skills, the velascos, devout evangelical christians, have homeschooled their children.te in the day they will be carpooling to gymnastics and soccer.e so youving the american dream here in brentwood, california? >> yes, this is the erican dream. >> reporter: it's a dream that vamay soon end. ssa and enrique came to this country from el salvad years ago on tourist visas, after an earthquake devastated thr homeland in 2001. they were able to stay in the du.s. under a program cal t.p.s. or temporary protected status. starting in 1990, it has allowed visitors from several countries to stay on if natural disasters or armed conflict would make it dangerous to return. some 200,000 salvadorians were routinely g

salvador, special correspondent fred de sam lazaro focuses on workers who are caught in the middle of trying to eke out a living while maintning their health. this report is part of fred's series "agents for change." r eporter: the cutters begin early, trying to sneak a couple of hours before the tropical suc begins tch the sugar cane fields. it's di trty, brutal wot requires the stamina of thed young ysically fit, the exertion likened to running a half marathon every but 20 years ago, doctors began noticing an alarming increase in the number of these young workers across central cmerica who weing into hospitals with a mysterious, ultimately fatakidney ailment. dr. ramon garcia is a kidney specialistn el salvador's capital, san salvador. >> seven to eighdeaths every day in this small couny. it's 10 to 12 times more than the expected death rate. this is a silent massacre. >> reporter: as drgarcia and others began to investigate, they discovered that on some farms, nearly one-fifth of sugar cane workers were suffering from chronic kidney disease even though they had none of the usual ri

newshour special correspondent fred de sam lazaro repor from el salvador's capital, san salvador, about one program that is trying to give them a reason to stay. >> reporter: over the past four years, more than 250,000 unaccompanied minors have made the dangerous journey north foot, hitchhiking, even riding on freight train cars, trying to cross the u.s. border. remarkably, 40% of them come from one tiny country, el salvador. el salvador is a daunting place to grow up. there are few job opportunities for young people and the specter of gang violence is everywhere, in graffiti that dominates the walls and in the graphic headlines th dominate the front pages. el salvador now has the one of the world's hight homicide rates, as rival gangs fight for territory and clash with the police.s there'en a special section of this cemetery just outside ansan salvador where young members are buried.ad ned with the hallmark graffiti, the headstones show that most of the dead are teenagers. young people we spoke with confirmed that fear and violence dominate their neighborhoods. >> ( translated ): it's