Thread: CNN's Lou Dobbs Defends Immigration Views

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

CNN's Lou Dobbs defends immigration views

By Ruth Morris
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Published June 17, 2006


CNN's famously blunt anchor Lou Dobbs took on his ideological foes Friday, telling an audience of Hispanic journalists that the United States was the "candy-rock mountain of the world" being chipped away by immigration policies meant to protect corporate interests.

Dobbs locked horns with former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. It was an immigration debate punctuated by jokes and sharp jabs.

The forum headlined Friday's roster at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Fort Lauderdale. Acknowledging that many in the audience had a family stake in the immigration debate, moderator Ray Suarez, of the Public Broadcasting Service, opened by asking spectators to "keep emotions well mannered."

At one point, Dobbs accused the Mexican government of exporting its poor to the United States, with "derelict" efforts to improve living conditions for its own.

Castañeda said the flow was in fact robbing Mexico of its most daring and entrepreneurial citizens, not unwanted citizens. He said, historically, Mexicans had emigrated north not to mock border controls, but because the U.S. government wanted them to come.

"Do you think Mexicans like to pass across the border through the Sonora desert?" Castañeda asked, to applause. "Do you think they like to die in the desert?"

Dobbs has turned his evening business show on CNN into a platform against reforms debated in Congress that would legalize millions of immigrants. On one recent CNN appearance, he congratulated a commentator for airing a viewer's e-mail that called for laying landmines along the border. Dobbs supports massive deportations and cracking down on employers who hire workers without the proper authorization.

"How can we reform immigration if we cannot control immigration?" he said in his opening remarks. "And how can we control immigration if we can't control our borders and ports?"



Richardson held up his own state policies as a counterbalance to an enforcement-only approach espoused by House conservatives. New Mexico allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, he said, pushing down the number of hit-and-run accidents and auto insurance premiums. His state also gives in-state tuition to the children of immigrants here illegally.

"This is working," he said. "Let's bring these individuals out of the shadows."

Beckmann, whose Washington, D.C.-based organization lobbies for the world's hungry, took Dobbs to task over comments that illegal immigrants were driving down wages, particularly in the meatpacking industry.

"It's not just the Mexican government that has failed its poor people," he said. Low-wage earners were feeling squeezed because of expensive health care and poor education, he said, not just because immigrants are filling low-paid jobs.

Suarez closed the discussion by asking Dobbs about his "unusual" role at CNN, where he stomps across the line between journalist and fiercely opinionated talking head.

Dobbs was unapologetic.

"I happen to have an interest in independent, nonpartisan reality," he said. "You may not agree with it."

Suarez smiled and responded: "Whether I agree or not is completely immaterial."

Lou went "swimmin with the sharks". Sounds like he did pretty well.

Castañeda said the flow was in fact robbing Mexico of its most daring and entrepreneurial citizens, not unwanted citizens. He said, historically, Mexicans had emigrated north not to mock border controls, but because the U.S. government wanted them to come.

Is this guy delusional or what! We have laws that the intelopers know exist, which say we don't want you without permission. Yet they come.

Arrrrwwww, since we've been bad pirate neighbors, we'll return your precious booty.

Dixie

Let me share a quick story about the brightest of Mexicos own being lost to America. Not long ago we watched in horror as about 5 of these kids here, who's parents are all illegals, as they threw a large kitchen knife into the air, and they all scrambled around to try to avoid (?) it. This went on for about 25 minutes before they got bored with it. The parents were nowhere to be found and no one came out (we dare not, as we will be harassed about it) to tell them this was a really bad idea, my own two young kids were totally surprised they were even doing this.

I could give SO many examples of how "bright" they are in this complex, so many things that are just so outrageous.

I say this to Castaneda, come round em' up, I'll help, you can have every single one of them back, I won't stand in your way!!

Castañeda said the flow was in fact robbing Mexico of its most daring and entrepreneurial citizens, not unwanted citizens. He said, historically, Mexicans had emigrated north not to mock border controls, but because the U.S. government wanted them to come.

If we are getting Mexico's best and brightest then we are getting the top of the bottom of the class. These people are so ignorant that even if they did get amnesty (which they will not) they would always be lower middle class at best. They refuse to be educated and will always work in low-skilled jobs. If this is the best they have that country is really be in trouble. They should focus on their own people rather then deporting them to our country.