Thread: Dobbs: Transcript Gutierrez 3-22

Congress is reviving the amnesty agenda. Just a few hours ago, the Senate leader announced the Senate will take up immigration reform in May. Earlier today, two congressmen showed us exactly what that does mean. Introducing new legislation that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens living in this country. Lisa Sylvester now reports on the plan to give away American citizenship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): House members Luis Gutierrez and Jeff Flakes are the architects of the first major immigration bill introduced in Congress this year.

REP. JEFF FLAKE, (R) AZ: And the planets are finally aligned, I think, to get this done.

SYLVESTER: The bill would invite 400,000 new guest workers in every year, double the cap in last year's Senate bill.

Those new workers and their immediate family would be eligible for citizenship after five years. That's on top of the 12 million plus illegal aliens in the United States who would be granted amnesty after paying a $2,000 fine and back taxes and enrolling in English classes.

There is a new condition called a touchback. Illegal aliens would have to leave the United States, even if it's just for a day. That's drawing ridicule from some on Capitol Hill.

REP. TOM TANCREDO, (R) CO: It doesn't say you have to go to the country of origin. You just have to go out of the country a little bit. It's a vacation. It's called a vacation in anybody else's language. In the bill, it's called "touchback." It's idiotic.

SYLVESTER: Others are taking issue with the so-called guest worker program.

ROSEMARY JENKS, NUMBERSUSA: It's not a guest worker program. It's a foreign worker importation program that will be permanent, 400,000 a year. It will devastate low income, low scale workers in this country, particularly minorities and recent immigrants.

SYLVESTER: The bill would require employers to try to hire U.S. workers first. And U.S. companies would not be able to import foreign workers to areas with high unemployment.

The bill also calls for establishing for a mandatory employment verification system, hiring more border agents and developing a biometric employment card for new foreign workers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER (on camera): The bill's sponsors have the work cut out for them. First, they have to shepherd this legislation through the House Judiciary Committee. Neither Flake nor Gutierrez sits on that committee. Then, they have to convince conservative Democrats to back what many Americans see as an amnesty bill and then they need to convince a number of Republicans to support the legislation. Right now, they only have six republican sponsors. Lou?

DOBBS: All right, Lisa. Well, we're going to be talking with one of the sponsors of that legislation here in just a few second. Luis Gutierrez, congressman from Illinois.

That brings us to the subject of our poll tonight. Do you believe as Congressman Flake does that, quote, "The planets are finally aligned," end quote, to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in this country? Yes or no? Please cast your vote at loudobbs.com. The results upcoming.

Today, Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez, along with Congressman Flake introduced the Strive Act of 2007. The bipartisan legislation promises to overhaul immigration, much as the same way that the Edwards-McCain - the Kennedy-McCain bill promised to do.

The Strive Act contains what some call a controversial provision requiring illegal aliens to leave the U.S. and to return legally.

Congressman Gutierrez is a strong supporter of amnesty for as many as 20 million illegal aliens in this country and he joins us tonight from Capitol Hill. Congressman, good to have you with us.

REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ, (D) CA: Thank you, Lou, for having me.

DOBBS: This legislation, this is actually, what, the third time, that you've introduced legislation?

GUTIERREZ: This is the second time we've introduced bipartisan legislation. We introduced it in the 109th and now in the 110th Congress.

DOBBS: What is -- I guess I have to ask you straightforwardly, what is the point of introducing this legislation again at this point? What is the first thing you want to accomplish? GUTIERREZ: The first thing I want to accomplish is end illegal immigration in the United States of America. And I want to fix our broken immigration system.

That's why this is a comprehensive. There's over 700 pages in this bill. It deals with everything from smart border security. Smart border security. And smart border security. Putting more patrol agents. Using a biometric cards so we know who is in the country. It's untamperable. Workers - we're going to know who those workers are. We'll have the thumbprint. We want to know and secure America.

We also put more provisions in it so we can fight against those who deal in illegal immigration. Those who are involved in gang and drug activities are also included in the bill.

And at the same time, we want to invite those to come out of the shadows and participate fully in our economy. And I think I shared with you before, Lou, I have yet to see a proposal that's going to sweep 11, 12, 13 million undocumented workers off our streets and send them back to their countries of origin.

So I want to fix the broken immigration system. And I know you keep saying it's amnesty. And I keep thinking to myself, you know, if I forgot, or just overlooked a past offense, maybe that's amnesty.

But this is really an earned legalization program where they pay a fine, $2,000. And I'll just end with this before your next question, you know, usually, our law has stated in the past, in order to become an American citizen, you had to learn English, you had to take civics class and you had to pass the test.

DOBBS: Right.

GUTIERREZ: Now we're saying if you want to become a permanent resident of the United States after joining this program for six years, then you have to show that you're English competent and have a civics understanding of our nation.

DOBBS: I think that's wonderful. I truly do. I think that's a wonderful requirement. But help me through a couple things. Is there anything in the legislation that requires that our borders and ports, I mean, be secure?

GUTIERREZ: Yes, we have triggers. We have triggers in the legislation.

DOBBS: All right.

GUTIERREZ: And well get that over to you. And what our legislation says is, before you can start any new worker program, inviting new workers to this country, or before you can even engage in legalization of those that are already here, the Department of Homeland Security has to establish that the new technology is in place. That it's available. That the funding is there. That the Border Patrol agents are -- so there are triggers. That biometric card, you don't have a biometric system that guarantees ...

DOBBS: Congressman, in all respect, you and I, we've known each other a long time. We disagree with each other about a lot of things. But you and I can agree with, I think, this, the Homeland Security Department is a screwed up mess. And can't even implement the U.S.- Visit program.

In the Citizen and Immigration Services has a backlog that is numbered in the millions of people trying to get into this country legally. And the second part is, we've heard Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security talk about sometimes, maybe we'll get to operational control. Not too sure.

Democratic leaders of the Congress, that they want to implement the fence. Then people talking about a virtual fence. Does anybody really think the American people are so stupid as to be gained again on the issue of border security?

GUTIERREZ: Here's what we have, Lou, we put the money for virtual fences, for new cameras, for new sensors, for new patrol agents, to gain control of our border. I think essential to gaining control of our border is stopping the flow of people trying to cross that border.

So we have a new program that says, look, here's the way to get to the United States legally to get that job that you so desire. Therefore you don't have to try to cross that border and endanger your life and endanger the lives of our agents so we can focus on the terrorist element that's trying to come into our country.

DOBBS: How about this instead, just as a thought -- make it an absolute requirement, rather than triggers as you put it. Let's try something new in Washington. Let's talk about results.

Once, once that it could be certified that our borders and ports are secure. And we could set a number for that, to demonstrate that it is not wide open. That actually, our borders are being enforced, how about that? Rather than -- as a standard, rather than as a trigger?

GUTIERREZ: Well, we think the trigger has caused those standards to -- of course, if you're going to say that those who are going to certify Homeland Security are incompetent, then you and I will never reach a conclusion about who is going to certify that the triggers are being in place.

DOBBS: Well, if you think I'm going to be in any way sad by listening to anything that this secretary of homeland security says about nearly anything, you would be correct.

Let me just show you something, if I may. Because I get kind of curious about this. If we could, let's take a look at the number of people that come into this country legally every year. Can we do that? We'll look at full screen so the congressman can see this.

There's a lot of distortion here. I think it's important to get these facts out. Two million people legally admitted to the United States each year. In addition - 14 percent of those, by the way, those people given permanent residency are from Mexico. Two million people legally admitted to the United States. Four hundred thousand skilled foreign workers and their families receive H-1 visas each year.

Nearly 900,000 other legal foreign workers are admitted on some type of employment visa. Six-hundred sixty thousand student visas are issued every year. And 455,000 people given temporary employment transfers.

Help me out. What are we trying to do here? I mean, we have -- we have an -- lawful immigration system that brings in 2 million people a year, plus all of these other workers that overwhelms any other immigration system in the world. All of Russia, all of the European Union combined can't even come close to matching our immigration levels. And that's a population 40 percent higher than our own. Help me out.

GUTIERREZ: Well, I can help you out. I will look at those figures. I hope you -- It's a lot. I can't see them up on the screen. I can only ...

DOBBS: I was hoping you could see them?

GUTIERREZ: I can't. I can only look into the camera. I can't see them. I would love to evaluate them, Lou. Come back, talk to you some more about that. But my initial ...

DOBBS: Congressman, you're one of my favorite people. You're always welcome here.

GUTIERREZ: Thank you. But kind of my initial reaction, is a lot of those people overstay their visas. We've got to stop that. And they are compounding the problem of undocumented workers. That's probably why a lot of them cross the border, they come here legally, overstay their visa.

We have got to deal with that, Lou. I want to deal with that in a very serious manner, that's why we need the biometric system. So you can't just jump from job to job. You need a system that you say, you know, this card, you can't alter it, you can't fake it, you can't counterfeit it.

And the lesson, Lou -- I just want to tell your reporter, I am on the Judiciary Committee, the committee of jurisdiction. The Democratic Caucus put me on the committee so that could help move the legislation forward.

DOBBS: Let me say two things. One is congratulations.

GUTIERREZ: Thank you.

DOBBS: And I apologize for our error.

GUTIERREZ: No ... DOBBS: Thank you. Congressman Luis Gutierrez. Come back next week. We'll talk some more.

GUTIERREZ: Thanks. I look forward to it.

DOBBS: Thank you.

STOP RIGHT HERE!!!

Just stop and look at this one sentance keeping in mind that the infamous NAU/SPP PENCE BILL is 280 pages ending American Sovereignty!

There's over 700 pages in this bill.

Yeah, I saw the show and was extremely disappointed in Lou. I thought he could have asked a lot tougher question - he gave Guiterrez a free ride on the airwaves.

I know Lou has the skills necessary to drive folks like Guiterrez into a corner, but I guess getting them on the show requires some concessions.

There's 700 pages in that bill.

Let's ask our Rep's staffers if they have read the bill??? If they stammer... tell them you expect them to know what they are voting on...very politely, of course.

Add that to calls and faxes and emails!

Originally Posted by olivermyboy

There's 700 pages in that bill.

Let's ask our Rep's staffers if they have read the bill??? If they stammer... tell them you expect them to know what they are voting on...very politely, of course.

Add that to calls and faxes and emails!

Wherever possible, CALL them.
They must respond to a phone CALL.
And CALLS drive them into a corner, forces them to respond, lets them know in no uncertain terms...........NO DICE!!!

2ndamendsis wrote:

Wherever possible, CALL them.
They must respond to a phone CALL.
And CALLS drive them into a corner, forces them to respond, lets them know in no uncertain terms...........NO DICE!!!

I absolutely agree , Sis! We need to call and call and call until these idiots listen.