Thread: CNN Transcript: Dobbs, Sharpton, ACORN Ceo

DOBBS: Welcome back. Pro-illegal alien open borders advocates are attacking Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona and they're accusing him of racial profiling. The sheriff for himself says he's enforcing U.S. immigration laws. Advocates including Reverend Al Sharpton are accusing the sheriff of civil rights violations. Ines Ferre has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network and community organizing group ACORN want the removal of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He's been enforcing immigration law under authority granted to local officials by a federal program known as 287G, but Sharpton says he's gone too far.

REV. AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: Anyone of color is being pulled over and harassed. People are being made to carry their citizenship papers around and that's racial profiling.

FERRE: Arpaio says he's a political scapegoat for those who don't want to enforce the law.

SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA: We are not racist. We're doing our job. That's how low these people are. They can't solve the problem any other way, so let's get personal. That's what they're saying.

FERRE: Arpaio's office is being investigated by the Justice Department for alleged civil rights abuses at the request of several Democratic lawmakers, none of them from Arizona. Groups wanting tougher action on illegal immigration say special interests are being allowed to politicize the Justice Department.

DAN STEIN, FED. FOR AMER. IMMIG. REFORM: Sheriff Joe is doing the job, his program is constitutional, it's legal, it's effective and it works, and that's why they're opposing it. There are people out there, organizations and others and many of them are closely aligned with the administration that oppose law enforcement, they oppose immigration law enforcement.

FERRE: Maricopa is one of 67 local authorities that take part in the 287G program.

(on camera): The Justice Department said it can't comment on the investigation against Arpaio's office. Lawmakers asked for that investigation on February 13th. The Justice Department announced it on March 11th.

Ines Ferre, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOBBS: Joining me now: Reverend Al Sharpton, he is joining with the left wing activist group ACORN in calling for the resignation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Joining me now are: the Reverend Sharpton, of the National Action Network -- good to have you with us; ACORN CEO and chief organizer, Bertha Lewis -- Bertha, good to have you with us.

Let's start. This is unusual and this investigation started with a call, Bertha, for an investigation by four Democratic senators -- excuse me -- Congressmen which looks on its face to be politicization of the U.S. Justice Department.

BERTHA LEWIS, CEO, ACORN: It didn't start there. It started two years ago. Sheriff Arpaio has been doing his reign of terror for a very long time.

DOBBS: Did you just say reign of terror?

LEWIS: Absolutely, I mean that.

DOBBS: Ok.

LEWIS: It's been arresting people simply because of the color of their skin, or their language. You can't tell whether someone is legal or illegal, you know. And he's using 287-G so the outcry that had come up from citizens across Maricopa County forced these Democrats to at least take some action and the Department of Justice has him under investigation.

DOBBS: Reverend Sharpton, as Bertha just said, there are four congressmen who called for this but not a single one of them from the state of Arizona.

REV. AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: First of all I think that the reason in that action is that I got involved and there was national (INAUDIBLE) from the NAACP, other civil rights groups on...

(CROSS TALK)

SHARPTON: ...La Raza and others is because our members that live in Arizona have raised this. So I don't know whether members of Congress in Arizona have raised it.

I talked to people that were citizens and I think the thing that broke the camel's back was when he started parading people through the streets. I mean he took a group of prisoners, paraded them to the street from one jail to another. I mean this is a bit beyond the pail.

But on top of that, when you get people that are born American citizens saying because of the color of my skin, I'm constantly pulled over, questioned about show my citizenship papers, this is a violation of people's civil rights.

This has nothing to do with anything personal. None of us know the sheriff personally. None of us have -- there's certainly no political agenda in a county in Arizona for many of us that are functioning nationally. But when we are told that you have a sheriff that are pulling people over constantly because of the color of their skin, they become a suspect of being an illegal immigrant, that's a civil rights violation, Lou.

DOBBS: Well, indeed, I think that would be the case if that indeed is true but the issue seems to be one in the community in which he lives, Sheriff Arpaio, that is Maricopa county. He was reelected by an enormous margin. He's been a member of the 287-G Justice Department program, giving him the authority to enforce immigration laws. His office has been investigated -- not investigated but reviewed by the folks who administer the program and nothing found to be a problem.

SHARPTON: As of yet. But as you said we're in the middle of an investigation. We don't know where the investigation will go.

Secondly the prerequisites of not being guilty of doing a violation of civil rights is not if you were reelected. If that was the case many people of civil rights violations just on the basis of they were reelected.

The case is that there's substantial evidence, the chairman of the house judiciary committee, John Conyers and others have also thought there's enough evidence to go forward and investigate. And I think that these issues have to be dealt with independent of your position on immigration.

You and I may not agree on immigration but I don't think you agree that people based on color ought to be pulled over and automatically become a suspect.

DOBBS: I think we'd agree on the latter. You and I would even agree on immigration. It's where you and I disagree is on illegal immigration. SHARPTON: Well, I don't think so. I don't think we do.

LEWIS: None of us.

SHARPTON: You are against amnesty. I'm for sanity. So I think we agree.
DOBBS: You seem to think the two are equivalents and I don't.
SHARPTON: No, I don't at all.

LEWIS: We believe -- I mean ACORN has a lot of members in Arizona. And this -- as I say, this has been going on for two years and also coming together more and more. And we believe that first of all, the 287-G program needs to be suspended and Arpaio needs to resign or be removed right away.

DOBBS: Why would you say that?

(CROSS TALK)

LEWIS: He actually is giving law enforcement folks who do the right thing a bad name.

Let me just say this. The federal government's job is to protect our borders and to make sure we have the same immigration program and so therefore...

DOBBS: How are they doing?

LEWIS: ...we cannot have people like Arpaio taking anything that he wants to do and profiling based on people's color. It's not right.

DOBBS: You conflated a number of things. One, that he is indeed racial profiling which he denies which by the way his department denies and over a fifth of his department is Hispanic, by the way. The rest of the statement that's interesting is, I asked you how is the federal government doing, in enforcing border security, and in enforcing U.S. immigration law. And what's ironic about that is, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security as governor of Arizona was the first person to call for emergency action on the border in her state.

SHARPTON: Well, again, we're confusing two issues. I think what National Action Network and NAACP board joined with ACORN today was on the violation of civil rights. We're not talking about immigration policy, one way or another on that issue.

Arpaio and the misuse of 287-G, we're saying there seems to be a pattern of civil rights violation. That's independent of what...

DOBBS: But you understand my...

SHARPTON: ...Napolitano is doing or anyone else. Secondly, I think that what becomes very important here is that to say that a fifth of his sheriff's department is Latino, you know, when we started making racial profiling a national issue it was on the New Jersey turnpike. A large percentage of their state troopers were Latino and black but we were able to prove in court the late Johnnie Cochran in National Action Network that they were in fact profiling.

One does not disprove the other.

DOBBS: Ok.

And the point that I'm making with Janet Napolitano as governor calling for emergency action in that state goes to your call to get rid of 287-G, because she, as governor of Arizona herself was saying that there is a national emergency here, that we're not enforcing immigration law at the federal level. We're not securing our border and that it is left to local law enforcement and I'm talking about from Texas to California. And when you call for the elimination of 287-G, that puts a cant, if you will, a bias in your very advocacy because you are opposed to 287-G no matter whether it would be properly administered or whether it were true that as you alleged that it's racial profiling.

LEWIS: It's not being properly administered. There is no oversight. We believe that this experiment needs to end. We believe that Janet Napolitano and the Obama administration need to come up with a comprehensive way to deal with this.

Arpaio and the way that he is going about doing this is not right and that's what we're here to talk about. That's what the focus is, and he blames immigrants of any color and any stripe. It's racial profiling.

It's not good, and Lou, on your show, right here, this man said, "Oh, I don't mind if people call me KKK." That's offensive. He should have resigned right then and there. We don't need a public servant saying that he's proud to be part of the Ku Klux Klan. Come on. He's racially profiling.

DOBBS: That's not it. Bertha, you know better than what you're saying and you should say you're sorry to God, okay.

LEWIS: No. You can play the film, he did it right here on your show.

DOBBS: By the way I remember what he said and he was responding to accusations that he was KKK.

LEWIS: And he said I was proud to be called that. Yes.
SHARPTON: Whether he said it or not...
DOBBS: Are you sorry you said that.
LEWIS: No.

DOBBS: You really should be. I really am embarrassed for you because that is a gross distortion of what the man said and what he meant. And you know it. (CROSS TALK)

SHARPTON: I think that the problem that we all have is that people should not be harassed and there should not be a distortion.

DOBBS: Oh, I don't think there's any doubt of that.

SHARPTON: I think if you're saying that Bertha and ACORN are saying things that Secretary Napolitano didn't say, then I think it dispels the introduction that these are groups that are aligned with the administration because you can't have it both ways.

That's not it. We were introduced as being close to the administration. I think what they're saying is they're challenging the administration on 287-G. What we're saying is that 287-G must be properly defined. If it's too vague, then clearly it needs to be changed so it's not misused.

DOBBS: But you understand that...

SHARPTON: But Arpaio has a pattern here. I don't care what he said on your show or didn't say on your show, I'm concerned about the people being pulled over just because of the color of their skin.

DOBBS: That can be established by fact-finding.
LEWIS: That's right.
DOBBS: And there's no issue of that.

But let's be clear, let's be clear, that there is a skepticism about the judgment here that's being exercised by the Justice Department, because it's a response to a call from four liberal, liberal Democratic congress people.

Every group arrayed here is on the side of amnesty, pro-illegal alien. And I don't think I hear anybody here calling for an experiment in border security and enforcement of U.S. Immigration law. What I hear is a call for an end to 287-G and its enforcement.

LEWIS: And the resignation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
DOBBS: I think I got that. I think I got that part.

SHARPTON: And I think that there is -- I think you'd acknowledge that there is no monolithic view, even in African-American and Latino communities in immigration.

(CROSS TALK)

DOBBS: Do you think we could include white folks there and Asians, too?
SHARPTON: Yes but you're talking about from the civil rights groups.
DOBBS: Absolutely.

SHARPTON: Their view -- Bertha and I may disagree on how to deal with the border. All of us agree that people because of the color of their skin should not be stopped. When they do, we ought to deal with it. That was the basis we came on.

DOBBS: I think that anybody who is found guilty of -- found to be racially profiling, absolutely should be charged.

SHARPTON: That's the issue.
DOBBS: That's one of the issues.

The second part is what is the impetus of this investigation? Is it political or is it rooted in civil rights concerns?

SHARPTON: The impetus of our involvement, I speak for the National Action Network and the call today with all of the groups is on civil rights violation. It has nothing to do...

(CROSS TALK)

LEWIS: Well, and the impetus is thousands of people being stopped and profiled merely because of the color of their skin. This is a systematic distortion. He's a bully and he needs to go and we need to suspend 287-G.

DOBBS: Have you met the man?

LEWIS: I've met him by his work. Our members in Arizona have been arrested time and time again; African-Americans who have been here for a long time.

DOBBS: What do you suppose would be said about ACORN, you're being investigated in 13 states, for crying out loud.

LEWIS: Oh, I'm glad you brought that up. That's not true. Check the facts. It's not true. You can get on the phone right now, call the Department of Justice.

DOBBS: I didn't say anything about the Justice Department.

LEWIS: ACORN is not being investigated anywhere in any state. You don't have your facts correct. If you're talking about people being prosecuted individuals, we are assisting in their prosecution so ACORN is not under investigation and has not been.

We asked the Justice Department in October, they confirmed it again and again, and you know what? Give them a call.

DOBBS: We will. We'll do it. And I certainly will and I assure you it will be early tomorrow morning. How's that?

LEWIS: That's good.
DOBBS: As always good to have you both here.
SHARPTON: Thank you.
DOBBS: Bertha, thank you so much.
LEWIS: Yes, thanks.
DOBBS: Thank you.



http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... dt.01.html

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-152585.html
Sharpton demands Arpaio to resign

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-152579.html
PROGRAM ALERT ACORN CEO AND SHARPTON ON DOBBS

related

Never thought it would happen, but I saw it with my own eyes. Someone even more ridiculous than Al Sharpton. Good grief! Is this woman for real? Man, oh man - she's right there in league with Guitterez and Pelosi!

Here's some youtube videos from this show that were put out by the other side. I negged their comments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqDlwYgFYgk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZY8HWHVvwk