From Lou Dobbs Tonight – October 27, 2006

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The White House tonight still hasn't responded to 12 Republican congressmen who are demanding a presidential pardon for U.S. border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Those congressmen want to send a letter. They did so today.

Ramos and Compean sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler who was granted immunity from prosecution by the U.S. attorney in Texas. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has called talk of a pardon for those agents nonsensical.

Today Snow said the White House will wait on congressional hearings on the case before responding to that letter. Those hearings don't begin until late next month.

New efforts tonight to fight a plan by some corporate business leaders and their political allies that could erode the United States sovereignty. The organizers are fighting a proposed North American union that could leave our nation vulnerable on many fronts.

Lisa Sylvester reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mexican truck drivers may soon haul cargo deep into the heart of the United States. They're currently limited to within 20 miles of the U.S. border. It could mean U.S. job losses and serve as a gateway for human and drug smuggling.

TODD SPENCER, INDEPENDENT DRIVERS ASSOCIATION: This would basically make a driver from Mexico be able to freely go about throughout the United States, and to us that's scary from a safety standpoint, but it's especially scary from a standpoint of security.

SYLVESTER: Critics say U.S. sovereignty is also on the line. To understand, go back to 2005. President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and then Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin launched what's called the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a trade and economic partnership that many see as a precursor to a North American union modeled after Europe.

JEROME CORTIS, COALITION TO BLOCK NORTH AMERICAN UNION: There's hardly a major area of public policy where the Bush administration has not, through the SPP working groups, rewritten our administrative law and regulations from being U.S. in nature to being North American in nature.

SYLVESTER: The coalition to block the North American union wants to defeat a proposed NAFTA superhighway that would stretch from Texas all the way to Canada.

Congress has been left largely out of the loop.

JOHN MCMANUS, JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY: They never even heard of this. They don't know a thing about it. What's going on? Well, what's going on is a super elite are taking control.

SYLVESTER: Lawmakers who have heard are hell bent on keeping a North American union from happening.

REP. VIRGIL GOODE (R), VIRGINIA: The interests of hard-working businesses in this country, hard-working workers in this country, and the average citizen in the United States should be placed ahead, in my opinion, of some international global theory that I think would harm the United States and most of its citizenry.

SYLVESTER: President Bush just signed the fence bill, saying the borders need to be secured.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER: At the same time, the U.S. Department of Transportation is considering this program to open the borders wide open to Mexican truck drivers and to create a NAFTA superhighway. Even though transportation officials say they would check the licensing and backgrounds of foreign truck drivers, it would be a bureaucratic nightmare to enforce -- Lou.

DOBBS: These three countries moving ahead their governments without authorization from the American people, without congressional approval, this is straightforward an attack on national sovereignty as there could be, outside of war.

SYLVESTER: And they are doing this behind closed doors, as you mentioned. Congress has been left out of the loop. People don't even know what they are coming up with. But what's clear at this point is that they are moving ahead with this North American union and putting these plans in place.

Very frightening -- Lou.

DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much.

Lisa Sylvester.

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The government of Mexico tonight is threatening, again, the national security and sovereignty of this nation, and some would say insulting the United States. Mexico says the United States has no right to build a new 700-mile fence along our southern border with Mexico. It appears the White House is not concerned in the least by the statements of Mexico's leading national officials.

Casey Wian is in Los Angeles, and has the latest for us -- Casey.

WIAN: Well, Mexican President Vicente Fox, Lou, said that the signing of the bill to build 700 miles of fence along the U.S./Mexican border is an embarrassment. His successor, President-elect Felipe Calderon, called it "a grave error," and U.S. President George Bush says he understands their sensitivities.

Apparently, the three men believe they have a shared interest in keeping the borders open, if you will. For example, Mexico depends on the United States. The Mexicans living in the United States, both legally and illegally, send $25 billion a year in remittances, the money they send home. It's one of the most crucial factors in Mexico's economy.

The United States has become a pressure relief valve for Mexico. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 percent of Mexican citizens are now living in the United States, economic refugees.

So if that fence gets built, and if it gets built along the entire southern border with Mexico and if the United States uses other tactics, including more Border Patrol agents, the National Guard, more technology to really secure the border, all of that money that Mexico receives from its citizens in the United States is at risk.

And of course, President Bush's interest in this seems to be more with corporate America, which has become absolutely addicted to the cheap illegal alien labor that primarily comes to this country from Mexico -- Lou.

DOBBS: Casey, addiction goes a long way to explain much of what is happening. You mentioned the addiction on the part of employers to cheap illegal labor. There's also the addiction to drugs. Mexico, the primary source of methamphetamines, the primary source of cocaine, the primary source of marijuana being distributed and sold in this country, generating about $25 billion -- some say $40 billion -- a year to Mexico.

This looks like a commercial interest being expressed by the president and president-elect of Mexico. One wonders, if they are embarrassed by the prospect of a fence, why they aren't embarrassed by impoverishing half of their nation -- just about half of the Mexican people live in poverty -- drug cartel violence is raging out of control throughout that country, they are the source of illegal drugs, source of illegal immigration. You would think that they would have both shame and be considerably embarrassed themselves rather than spewing the rhetoric that they did today.

WIAN: You would think so. Mexico, as you know, Lou, consistently blames the United States for the drug problems along the border. They blame consumers in the United States for that drug problem. Yet, they have taken no action, almost no action, and certainly no successful action to control the out-of-control drug violence on the Mexican border.

So it seems to be easier to point the finger at the United States for at least trying to do something to control this problem.

DOBBS: And there's, of course, no question at all that we have been singularly unsuccessful in curbing that demand and certainly interdicting the supply of drugs into this country. You would think there would be considerable embarrassment in this country for other reasons. Perhaps securing those borders, we'll be able to remove some of the reasons for embarrassment -- much, I'm sure, to the discomfort of the corrupt and incompetent government of Mexico.

Casey Wian, thank you very much.