Lou Dobbs Tonight partial transcript - Apr 4, 2007

DOBBS: Tonight, more states are moving in the fight against the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership. Officially, the SPP aims to integrate the economies of Mexico, Canada and the United States by the year 2010. This is, no matter what anyone tells you, a very serious and unprecedented challenge to the sovereignty of this nation. And it's happening utterly without the knowledge and certainly without the approval of the American people or the consent of Congress.

Christine Romans reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A sweeping partnership forged here two years ago is hitting resistance in state houses across America, the Security and Prosperity Partnership. Dozens of working groups at the highest levels of government, along with the most powerful companies in the hemisphere, have been meeting "to harmonize regulations."

BILL KETRON (R), TENNESSEE STATE SENATE: I don't want to go any further until our congressional delegation of all Congress and all the United States, the governing body of this country, has the opportunity to put it on the top of the table and see if it meets the litmus test of whether or not we want to be part of the North American partnership.

ROMANS: State Senator Ketron is from Tennessee, one of 14 state legislatures considering opposition to the Security and Prosperity Partnership. Many lawmakers see an effort to break down borders and regulatory difference between the three countries the first step toward a North American union.

According to the official government Web site, "The SPP does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency or change the American system of government designed by our founding fathers." Supporters envision a safer and more efficient North America, better positioned to compete with China and India. The scope of bureaucratic cooperation between three very different countries is unprecedented on the environment, transportation, food safety, the energy grid, immigration, and border security.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Border security advocates say the Bush administration is not serious about border security because it gets in the way of his aggressive plan to erase borders between the countries at the behest, Lou, of the big businesses, the big companies that are advising this entire process.

DOBBS: To say that the Bush administration is not serious about border security, let's be clear. The border is absolutely meant to be wide open, as far as this administration is concerned. The secretary of Homeland Security has made that clear in memoranda, in his statements, that there will be no -- no effort, no real significant effort put forward to secure our borders, five and a half years after 9/11.

What I can't understand is why more Americans aren't asking why we have troops dying in Iraq, we have our troops posted in 40 nations around the world in the war on terror, but this government, this administration, refuses to secure our borders and our ports five and a half years after September 11th.

ROMANS: This government and the people who are the proponents of the SPP, they are careful to say they want safe and efficient movement of people and goods across borders. They put the word "safe" first.

DOBBS: Well, they're lying, and they are underhanded, and they are not working in the interest of the United States. And it's that straightforward, that clear.

When you hear words like "harmonize" three nations, like Mexico, Canada, and the United States, what in the world does harmonize mean? It means nothing, of course, but it does mean that our sovereignty is under direct attack. Not publicly and not straightforwardly, and our Congress is at this point still, with a few exceptions in Congress, still indifferent to this outright assault on our sovereignty.

Christine, thank you very much.

Christine Romans.

Ninety-seven members of Congress want House Speaker Pelosi to oppose giving amnesty to illegal aliens. Congressman Brian Bilbray, who chairs the International Reform Caucus and is one of the authors of the letter, said, "Rewarding illegal behavior sends the wrong message to millions of people waiting their turn to legally come to the United States."

What part of illegal don't people understand?

Well, apparently close to 100 congressmen do understand. Ninety- five Republicans and two Democrats signing on to that letter.

Federal immigration officials today carried out another in a series of workplace enforcement actions and raids, all part of an effort by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold some employers accountable for their hiring of illegal aliens.

But as Kitty Pilgrim now reports, their initiative may not be having a significant impact on illegal alien workers and the businesses hiring them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A middle-of-the- night immigration raid in Beardstown, Illinois, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. At the Cargill meat packing plant, the after hours cleaning crew was running a criminal illegal immigration ring.

Cargill says they cooperated with the federal officials in the raid. The offender, the cleaning service, QSI. Sixty-two illegal aliens were arrested, 13 on criminal charges of identity theft, using stolen documents from U.S. citizens.

Federal officials say they are taking a tougher approach.

ELISSA BROWN, ICE SPEC. AGENT-IN-CHARGE: In the old INS days we would give a penalty of some small fine. The interior enforcement strategy for ICE now is to proceed against these companies criminally. We're hoping these type of enforcement actions will somehow be a deterrent.

PILGRIM: This raid comes three and a half months after the biggest federal illegal alien sweep ever on Swift meat packing plants, which netted more than 1,200 illegal alien workers. At that time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warned there would be more raids. "Once we enforce the law, that is going to have a ripple effect."

But that ripple is faint. Last year, 4,383 illegal aliens were arrested in work site raids, but there are as many as 20 million illegal aliens currently in the country. At least 350,000 working in the maintenance industry alone.

REP. BRIAN BILBRAY (R), CALIFORNIA: I think it sends a proper signal that just because you got across the border and made it 100 yards north of the frontier, you are not free to continue to break the law and flaunt the law by working illegally in the United States.

PILGRIM: But against millions of illegal aliens, 5,500 federal immigration agents are badly outnumbered.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PILGRIM: Some legislators like Bilbray say the raids are necessary, but more are needed. Also necessary, legislation requiring tamper-proof Social Security cards, and also persistent crackdowns on employers who violate the law -- Lou.

DOBBS: Kitty, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Viewers of this broadcast are well aware of the case of two former Border Patrol agents serving long prison sentences for wounding an illegal alien drug smuggler in Texas who testified against those agents at the behest of the U.S. attorney, Johnny Sutton, who gave that drug smuggler immunity.

Tonight we want to update you on another case that we have been reporting on with some parallels. This case involves two illegal aliens injured when a deputy sheriff shot at the tires of their van after they had tried to run him over.

The illegal aliens threatened to sue, but they had settled for $100,000. Deputy Gilmer Hernandez (ph) was convicted of violating the civil rights of the illegal aliens and was sentenced to prison.

The case was prosecuted by U.S. attorney Johnny Sutton. The same U.S. attorney who prosecuted former patrol agents Ramos and Compean.

In this case, the deputy said the van was trying to run him down after a traffic stop. He then fired on the tires of that van in order to save his life. He was sentenced to a year in prison -- a year and a day, in fact.

We talked with the sheriff's office in Texas tonight. Sheriff Don Lutsinger (ph) isn't happy about settling with those illegal aliens. The sheriff says the insurance carrier strongly recommend the county accept the settlement, and that's what they did.

++++

DOBBS: We talk a lot on this broadcast about Americans who have had a belly full with various government responses to issues. Well, a group in Vermont has really had a belly full and wants Vermont, in fact, to secede and perform -- form its own republic.

The group is known as the Second Vermont Republic and says it's opposed what it calls the tyranny of multinational corporations and the U.S. government.

It also points out that the state of Vermont was independent once before. Vermont seceded from the British Empire in 1777 and remained free until 1791. No other state governed itself longer before joining the union.

More now on one of our earlier reports: the unprecedented attack on this nation's sovereignty, an assault that is deceptively called the Security and Prosperity Partnership. It aims to integrate the economies of Mexico, Canada, and the United States by the year 2010.

You may be thinking, wait a minute, you didn't approve that. You would be right. No one else has either. Why is no one outside this broadcast reporting this in the mainstream media?

A veteran journalist is asking the very same question. We asked Cliff Kincaid, editor of the "Accuracy in Media Report", to join us here tonight to discuss just exactly that.

Cliff, good to have you here.

CLIFF KINCAID, EDITOR, "ACCURACY IN MEDIA REPORT": Great to be with you, Lou.

DOBBS: It is, I think -- it's clear that you're as astounded as I am and as my colleagues are that more people in the media are not focusing on this issue.

KINCAID: I think the issue of sovereignty is, frankly, just not as sexy as a former "Playboy" Playmate, for example, or the latest missing person.

DOBBS: Right.

KINCAID: But it involves the future of our country.

Lou, I have been here in Washington, D.C., for almost 30 years, and this story about the submersion of U.S. sovereignty to this emerging trilateral entity, the North American community, the North American union, whatever you want to call it, seems to be the story of our lifetimes. It is simply incredible.

I've seen literature out of the people behind us who even envision a North American Supreme Court with the ability to overrule our own Supreme Court.

DOBBS: You know, we reported here earlier tonight that some of the states, now 14 of them, are preparing to fight back against this North American union, Security and Prosperity Partnership, whatever you want to call it. Why in the world, in your judgment, is -- there are a few, a handful of people in Congress, beginning to take action.

But why isn't this something that galvanizes the United States Congress and both political parties?

KINCAID: Well, I think both political parties are part of the process. As you know, this started, really, under President Clinton. It follows from NAFTA. It's been continued and expanded under President Bush to the Security and Prosperity Partnership. So you have a bipartisan consensus in favor of it.

The Democrats like eliminating the borders between the three countries because they see potential voters coming out of Mexico.

The Republicans see benefits because big business, one of their big constituencies, sees cheap labor and resources from Mexico and even Canada to be exploited.

So both parties, in other words, Lou, have a vested interest in keeping this all hushed up.

DOBBS: In the piece you wrote in "Accuracy in Media", I want to quote from it for the benefit of our audience, and I have to believe that some -- a few people in our audience may be thinking that you and I are talking about some fictional plot, but let me assure everyone this is very real. All too real.

And this is what you wrote, "The academic literature alluded to how the three countries of North America are polarized on sensitive cultural issues, such as the death penalty, abortion, and gay marriage, and that it might take a long time to -- here's that word again -- harmonize their legal systems on such matters."

That's incredible.

KINCAID: Well, because what the people behind this plan see is not only bringing the three countries together economically, but legally, politically, and culturally. And that means here in the U.S., we would have to accept the more liberal laws such as acceptance of gay marriage in Canada.

This is where they're going with this. It really is true integration of the three countries at all levels.

I got that information, by the way, by attending a conference here in Washington sponsored by the Center for North American Studies where it was all devoted to developing a North American legal system.

DOBBS: Again, an effort that is supported by both proximity and interest by the Council of Foreign Relations and a host of others. And we have been reporting here on the high level meetings amongst the bureaucracy, academic, political, business elites in which, for some reason, we can't seem to gain admission to some of those higher level meetings.

We're glad you were there. We're glad that you were paying great attention to this. We hope many more will follow.

Cliff Kincaid, thank you very much.

KINCAID: My pleasure.