If you have the chance, e-mail Lou Dobbs and tell him Arlen Specter's newest amnesty plan is NOT a "marked improvement" over the last amnesty bill. As someone said in another thread, Dobbs did go too easy on him.

Glenn Spencer has posted analysis of why this plan would be doomed to fail:

http://www.americanpatrol.com/07-FEATUR ... 72007.html

http://oneoldvet.com/?p=2372

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Full transcript:

DOBBS: Senate Republicans last week introduced new immigration enforcement legislation. Among the many provisions in the legislation are plans to hire 14,000 new Border Patrol agents to secure our borders. The bill would also increase penalties against employers who knowingly higher illegal aliens. Senator Arlen Specter, Republican - Senator Specter is co-sponsor of the new legislation and joins us tonight. We thank you for being here.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PA: Nice to be with you, Lou. Thank you.

DOBBS: Senator Specter, let me ask you if I may, you heard the people -- you're back in your home state. Y'all heard the American people basically react through their e-mails, phone calls, their messages to you that, you know, they're not too thrilled with what you folks have done for two years running. Why do you want to resurrect even the effort right now?

SPECTER: Well, because it's very important. It affects the broken borders. And that's why I've joined with Senator Kyl and other Republicans to put additional Border Patrol, more employer verification with tough penalties. We've had a big problem. There are some 1,400 proposals floating around. And some 140 have been passed by the State of Arizona and municipalities. It's a national issue.

DOBBS: It is a national issue. It's also an issue of national security. The two issues of border security and illegal immigration crisis are melded in the minds of this president and many in Washington. But most Americans, I think, if you look poll after poll, senator, they're having a hard time understanding when it's a matter simply of national security that six years under a Republican Congress, a Republican White House, leading a global war on terror, that our borders have not been secured. That our ports have not been secured.

And there's a great distrust. I mean, you look at the approval ratings. You hear from your constituents. There's just a great distrust of this administration, this Congress, whether Democratically led or Republican led, that you all can do anything right.

SPECTER: Well, that distrust is well-founded. But I think that we have finally come up with the money to back up -- back up our words. And with respect to the 12 million who are undocumented, I'm floating an idea. I'm not introducing legislation. But floating an idea just to remove the fugitive status, not to deal with citizenship, but just to say that an unscrupulous employer can't hold the threat of reporting him over his head. And if fugitive status is removed, we can get them to register. Get them to hold a job. Pay back taxes. No citizenship, which is the guts of the amnesty worry.

DOBBS: Senator, I think that there's no question that's a marked improvement from a straightforward path as envisioned by Senate Bill 1639. It's certainly an improvement from that. My question is why is there no empirical discussion of the issues?

I mean, if we could put up something, we hear there's a labor shortage. The president talks about we can't have border security without a guest worker program. Has anybody said to the president of the United States, Mr. President, we have nine guest worker programs. Most of them are unlimited in the number of workers who can enter under the quest worker programs, that we bring in over 1,200,000 last year, legal residents. As you suggest you want to with 12 million, whatever the number may be.

What does that effectively buy us in fixing this -- this god- awful mess?

SPECTER: Well, Lou, seven Republican senators last week led by Senator Kyl and I joined him, have said that we've got to fix the broken borders. We have got to have tough employer verification and that comes first. And after we do that, we're going to try to establish credibility with the American people.

Look, the American people don't trust anybody in Washington. And regrettably, they've got good basis for doing so. So we have a very heavy burden of proof. And we're trying to meet it.

DOBBS: And, Senator Specter, I know your motivation, your -- your interests are -- are absolutely the best of reasons, the best of intentions. The difficulty that I think many Americans have right now is in the legislation that passed last week in the House. They passed the DREAM Legislation. The House of Representatives literally invalidated a 215-213 vote that would have stopped the -- through the amendment providing welfare to illegal aliens in this country and watched like a banana republic as the chair, Congressman McNulty (ph) in that instance, flipped it.

I mean, what in the world is going on? Why is there such urgency to represent the interest of illegal aliens in our nation's capital and not the interests of the American working man and woman? No one is -- I mean, no one seems to be talking about the folks who really build this country.

SPECTER: Well, I think it's wrong to nibble at the edges on a legislation which you have suggested. And that's why -- that's why the seven of us led by Senator Kyl want to fix the broken border and toughen employer verification to prove that we really mean business. Once we do that to establish credibility, then to come back and deal with the other parts of it.

DOBBS: Senator, do you think there is an appetite in the Senate at this point to resurrect such legislation and to move it ahead?

SPECTER: No, I do not think there is. But I think it's something to be talked about. That's why I didn't put in a bill. I just put in a suggested draft. And that's why I wrote an op-ed piece for the "Washington Post." I think this year is going to be too busy. But Lou, next January or February we're not going to have a whole lot to do before appropriations starts and I think we ought to set the stage. But we're finding states and local governments are acting on it and it's crazy quilt and it's a national issue. And that's why I don't think we ought to go to sleep on it. I think we ought to recognize the failures, our lack of credibility, and come up with something that makes sense.

And listen, Lou. No blowing smoke rings. You've got a big following. And a lot of people will understand and focus on the issue on your program. That's why -- that's why we're so anxious to put our best foot forward and let's start the discussion. And, listen, we're open for business. We're ready to have modifications and suggestions.

Well, senator, I know they'll be forthcoming and I know the American people will be glad to have their voices heard as always in Washington, DC. And you're one of the folks who certainly listens as well as leads. We thank you.

SPECTER: I'm on a tour through the states now, through counties, and had two town meetings today and heard a lot about immigration and I've learned some things, Lou. When I go back to Washington, I'm going to put them to use.

DOBBS: Well, they always say no one of us is smart as all of us in this democracy. Senator, we thank you very much. Senator Arlen Specter joining us ...

SPECTER: Good to be with you, Lou. Thank you.

DOBBS: ... from the fair in Huntington, Pennsylvania, tonight. Thank you, senator.