DOBBS: It could be there is an awakening in this country. Tonight communities all across the nation are stepping in to fill a void created by a federal government that will not enforce existing immigration and border security laws. Those communities are fighting a worsening illegal alien crises. The crises has become a number one midterm election issue in parts of this country.

Tonight Bill Tucker reports from Stillmore, Georgia, a small town that saw half its population literally disappear after a crackdown on illegal immigration. And Bill Snyder is live in Denver, Colorado tonight where an important congressional race could be decided on the issue of illegal immigration and the issue of border security.

We begin with Bill Tucker, in Stillmore, Georgia.

Bill

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: Lou, no one is certain where most of those people disappeared to, but we do know that Immigration Customs enforcement has more than 120 in its custody.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCKER (voice over): The Crider Poultry plant in central Georgia lost almost 70 percent of it's workers beginning in July. Immigration and Customs enforcement arrested 120 illegal workers over the Labor Day weekend. Hundreds more fled before they could be arrested. The plant clearly benefited from the cheap labor force. But it took a toll on this town of 700, which saw its population double as the result of an influx of illegal aliens.

MAYOR MARILYN SLATER, STILLMORE, GEORGIA: There was overcrowding in the houses, which caused the sewage system to overflow and it's going to cost about a million dollar to get it fixed. And we don't have that kind of money.

TUCKER: While the community's police force of two part-time officers was severely strained, others exploited the situation.

SLATER: The employers and the landlords. We're all overcrowding. They were the ones making the money, the landlords. The more they could get in a trailer, the more money they made.

TUCKER: This house, for example, once housed as many as 40 illegal workers. David Robinson, who owns this trailer park outside Stillmore, defends himself saying no one forces anyone to live in his properties.

DAVID ROBINSON, LANDLORD: If we've done something wrong, the way I feel, Wal-Mart's done something wrong by feeding them, letting them get groceries. It's a just a service we provide, just like a service Wal-Mart or car dealers, or anybody else giving them transportation and stuff.

TUCKER: As for the employer, Crider, the divide between the boss and his workers couldn't be more stark. Since the arrest by Immigration and Customs enforcement, Crider has raised wages and has been forced to hire locally.

DAVE PURTLE, CRIDER POULTRY: Well, we certainly don't want to be back in this situation again, where we could have the possibility of losing this many employees.

TUCKER: ICE agents have been back at the plant since the arrest, training the company on how to spot fake documents.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCKER: Now, Lou, you might think those higher wages have hurt Crider, but a look at the county tax rolls is very revealing. Crider pays no property taxes on the nine and a half acres that it sits on. That belongs to the county. They only pay taxes on the buildings on the property, and it only began paying taxes to the city last year -- Lou.

DOBBS: Bill, that's a remarkable story there in Stillmore, the fact that that -- did any official take action against that employer?

I mean, that's all very cute that they don't pay taxes, that they can crush, be responsible for crushing a town's infrastructure. What is the penalty for them at this point?

TUCKER: There is no penalty, Lou. The harshest penalty at this point is they've had to replace about 70 percent of the work force. But there have been no fines leveled against the employer. Talking to the police chief today, he told me the previous police chief had had problems. He contacted ISIS, back in the late '90s, what was then INS, said we need your help. And INS then said, Lou, what we hear now, unless they're committing a crime, we're not coming down to pick them up. You're on your own.

DOBBS: Well, the it is one of the reasons we're seeing communities all over the country take steps. The misrepresentation in the national media on this story has been interesting, too. Because you found something quite different than earlier reports had suggested and other news outlets, that the townspeople were up said about ICE raid, in fact, what did you find?

TUCKER: I found a mayor who was extremely upset at the way she was portrayed in one article as being sympathetic to the illegal aliens in her community. It's very different when you sit down and talk with her. She's the one that pressed the plant to pay taxes, because they were getting no revenues. She's the one who's gotten involved -- and felt unfortunate about the way she was portrayed earlier articles.

DOBBS: The trailer park operator that you talked with, is the fellow who flew the American flag upside down in an expression of resentment against the enforcement of immigration laws?

TUCKER: That's the very same guy. And when I talked to him today, he was expressing a lot of regret in having done that. The flag has since been turned upright. But that's the same guy.

DOBBS: He ought to express some regret, he ought to express some shame and when he compares exploitation to service, I think he also ought to issue an apology. Just because we're in America I can say things like that.

Bill Tucker, that town stands as a metaphor for what is happening in this country. We thank you very much for the report from Stillmore, Georgia. Tonight a hotly contested congressional race in Colorado is likely to be decided on the issue of border security and illegal immigration.

Republican and Democratic candidates are trying to run away from their national party positions. They're fighting hard to convince voters they have the toughest position on the issue of border security and against illegal immigration. Bill Schneider went out to Denver and tonight has the report for us.

Bill, first, what makes border security such a hot issue in this race, Colorado not being exactly a border state?

BILL SCHNEIDER, SENOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, it's very far from the border, thought they do have a lot of immigrants, legal and illegal immigrants. There was a ballot measure that was proposed to cut off a lot of government services for illegal aliens. That measure was thrown off the ballot, it was disqualified by the state supreme court. That got people very angry.

So, the democratic controlled legislature met and they passed a number of laws, some of the tougher laws against the illegal immigration in the country. They made it tougher for employers to hire illegal aliens. They limited some benefits for people who are here illegally.

But that didn't satisfy people who were angry about it, who said, look, we need the federal government to do something. And the Republican president and the Republican Congress aren't acting. Therefore, the issue has become front and center in the race -- in a wide open race in Colorado's Seventh Congressional District.

DOBBS: All right, the Republican is running against the president's position of so-called -- in my opinion, a laughable position -- which is really simply amnesty, what he wants and loves to call comprehensive immigration reform. How successful is that approach?

SCHNEIDER: We don't know. It's neck and neck right now because the Democrat is trying to essentially minimize the differences on this issue with the Republican. The Democrat told me, and I interviewed him yesterday, his program is to secure the border, to bust organized crime, to make employers abide by the law. He wants to get tough and talks about border security. He also favors a path to citizenship. That's one of the ways he differs, as well as a guest worker program.

DOBBS: Ah!

(LAUGHTER)

SCHNEIDER: So there are differences here, but the Democrat insisted these differences are very small, and he didn't want to talk much about the issue. The Republican wants to make it front and center issue in this campaign, even though he disagrees with his own president and the Congress.

DOBBS: Well, with the Senate, you mean

SCHNEIDER: The Senate.

DOBBS: The House has shown intelligence and fortitude, in dealing with the issue of border security. It is interesting. You've got a candidate there running from his president on comprehensive immigration reform, as the president, like I said likes to call it.

And you've got a Democrat trying to run from his party which is in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and amnesty and a national political party -- and most of the members, nearly all of the members of the U.S. Senate who passed that legislation. It sounds like politics are getting a little local there.

SCHNEIDER: Politics are local here. There's even a difference over how important the issue is. The Democrat does favor comprehensive reform. But his position generally is, it's not a big issue here. He doesn't want to talk about it.

When I interviewed the Democrat, he said to me, that most recently as Monday night, when I went to 40 houses, immigration did not come up once. The Republican said that the voters are saying to me when I campaign, we're not going to do any more bargains on amnesty until we know for sure that the borders are secure.

There was a poll taken, statewide, by "The Rocky Mountain News" and CBS Channel 4, and the headline of this poll, which was recently published was, immigration, top issue for most. So it is a very hot issue, statewide and I believe also in the Seventh Congressional District.

DOBBS: I think it's going to be fascinating. We're finding that, as you know, across the country. Illegal immigration, there's just no stomach for tolerating this any longer. There's no stomach for politicians who will permit it in nearly every part of the country.

Let me ask you this, we know the national Republicans are divided. Where does the Democratic Party stand on -- I've not heard Howard Dean say, I'm all about opening the borders, all about amnesty, and I haven't heard him say he's about security? What's the deal?

SCHNEIDER: Well, the Democrats are basically standing back from this conflict, and they're letting Republicans fight among themselves. Why get involved in another party's brawl.

Most Democrats do support comprehensive reform. They supported it in the United States Senate. What's happening here is interesting, local Republicans, like the candidate here in Colorado are running an anti-Washington campaign against some of the positions taken by their party leaders in Washington on illegal immigration.

DOBBS: I've got a funny feeling voters in November are going to go through this -- these smoke screens on positions, and cut to the chase. And are not going to find -- I think that these strategists and candidates are going to find them a little hard to fool this time around.

SCHNEIDER: Could well be.

DOBBS: Bill Schneider, good to have you with us.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

DOBBS: Tonight, states are being hit with massive costs in their efforts to install unreliable, insecure, e-voting technology, all across the country. We'll have that story.

And best-selling and prestigious historian Neal Ferguson, also one of my favorite historians, will be our guest here. His new book, says the West is seeing its influence decline, and he puts that in perspective -- and tells us why.

And is our National Guard stretched far too thin? Congress today heard important testimony on that very issue, the readiness of our National Guard. All of that and more coming right up. Stay with us.

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On Capitol Hill, the Senate voted to begin debate on a bill to begin construction of a new 700 mile fence along our border with Mexico without seeking the approval of the Mexican government. The Senate voted 94 to zero to begin the debate. Senate leaders say they hope to pass that bill before the midterm election break.

Senator Jeff Sessions today urged his colleagues to stop talking about border security and actually do something, beginning with supporting this bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R) ALABAMA: We've always said we'd have these votes, and we've had these votes. But when the dust settles, we've never made it law and never made it reality. So I urge my colleagues to understand that. Without this legislation, we're not going to get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOBBS: And in an interview with my colleague, Wolf Blitzer, President Bush said he supports the border fence legislation, that he would sign the bill. After months of demanding that the poor, foolish American people accept his idea of comprehensive immigration reform and demanding that Congress support it, President Bush today finally said he would sign the border security-only legislation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, I'll sign it into law. And it's part of the appropriations process.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: In other words, if it's just a narrow focus on border security without the guest worker program or the other issues, you'll just take that for naught?

BUSH: I firmly believe the Senate and the House need to work together on a comprehensive plan to solve this problem. I would view this as an interim step, I don't view this as the final product. And I will keep urging people to have a comprehensive reform.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DOBBS: During that interview, President Bush denied his administration's been slow to strengthen border security. The president says it's taken so long to address border security, however, because it's a long border.

It's hard work, Mr. President, but you need to get it done.