Below is the transcript from a segment on Lou Dobbs last night about the latest amnesty proposal by Bush and the Republican National Committee:


And the Bush administration's new plan for immigration reform and economics. Critics say the White House is only trying to marginalize Americans who want to secure our borders and to rationalize our broken immigration legal system. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: The Bush White House and the former head of the Republican National Committee have come up with a unique, interesting way in which to put together a group of Hispanic and business lobbyists trying to persuade the American public that President Bush's proposal for a guest-worker program is the best way to provide a solution to our nation's broken border crisis.

Casey Wian has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The White House is organizing a powerful coalition of business groups, Latino lobbyists, and former lawmakers to promote the president's guest worker agenda and apparently marginalize those who want the border secured first. Called Americans for Border and Economic Security, the still-evolving group is led by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and two former congressmen, California Democrat Cal Dooley and Texas Republican Dick Armey.

FMR. REP. DICK ARMEY (R), TEXAS: I don't think you can secure the borders unless you also have to have an open and efficient process by which people can come here legally.

I put it this way: I don't run red lights. But if the light stays there and doesn't change, eventually I'll go through it. And it's the same thing with an awful lot of workers who come here.

WIAN: Laura Reiff leads the Essential Worker Coalition, a pro- guest worker business lobby group that has been approached by the White House coalition. She denies the goal is to perpetuate cheap labor.

LAURA REIFF, ESSENTIAL WORKERS IMMIGRATION COALITION: We think that that's really a copout, that, you know, the wages are good. The wages allow upper mobility. We don't have the people to do the jobs.

WIAN: The White House is courting others, from agricultural lobbyists to giant corporations such as Wal-Mart and Microsoft. They did not respond to requests for comment. Border security activists say the growing public demand for secure borders is influencing the White House's posture, if not its actions.

IRA MEHLMAN, FAIR: It's clear that they're getting the message that the American people are fed up with the status quo. And what they are trying to do is simply repackage it and send it back to them in a different form and convince them that it's something new. I don't believe that the American public will fall for it.

WIAN: Another potential hurdle, groups who want to join the White House coalition are being asked to pay between $50,000 and a quarter of a million dollars.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WIAN: An executive of one organization being recruited by Americans for Border and Economic Security says the White House is going to be hard-pressed to find any groups willing to pony up that kind of money. It's another example of the administration's continuing struggle to deal with the issue of illegal immigration, Lou.

DOBBS: It's a struggle for just about everyone in this country. $50,000 to $250,000 to join up -- Casey, it is, after all, a Republican-led effort here. I mean, you wouldn't expect it to be on the cheap, would you?

WIAN: Well, I guess not. But one of the concerns that some of the folks have raised who have been involved in these meetings is that, by asking for so much money, they're going to marginalize some of the groups they're trying to attract. You can't imagine there's too many grassroots Hispanic organizations that are going to be willing to pay that kind of money to join a Republican-led group, Lou.

DOBBS: Well, some of those groups, and like many of the other business organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce-front organizations, as well, all are being paid for by big business in this country. Those U.S. multinationals will be delighted, I'm sure, to at least contribute a paltry sum like $50,000 or a quarter of a million to their effort.

The shame here is that none of it goes anywhere to giving us a look at what is happening within the nation of Mexico, its corruption, its economic disorganization and dysfunction, and the immense poverty that drives many of the illegal aliens into this country. That money could certainly be better spent, it seems to me, at least.

Casey, thank you very much. Casey Wian.