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Univision 41 Entrevista a Lou Dobbs de CNN
New York, NY -- For the first time noted CNN business journalist Lou Dobbs defends his controversial (anti-immigrant, according to some) statements about illegal immigration into the US before a Spanish-language US TV audience. Dobbs, whose “Lou Dobbs Tonight” is seen by more than half a million people daily on CNN, addressed concerns of US Hispanics in an interview with Univision journalist Antonio Martinez to be seen Tuesday and Wednesday, February 28 and March 1 on the 11 pm edition of “Noticias Univision 41” (Univision 41 News) on New York’s premier Spanish-language TV station, Univision 41 (WXTV). Martinez, co-anchor of Univision 41’s breakfast news program, “Noticias Univision 41 al Despertar” (Univision 41 News at Dawn), spoke with Dobbs on the set of the latter’s CNN program.
In the interview, Dobbs said that through illegal immigration, “we are destroying the way of life for an entire generation,” and called the illegal immigrants “absolutely an illegal invasion.”
Dobbs repeated many of the concerns he has raised on the “Broken Borders” segment of “Lou Dobbs Tonight” for the past three years. According to Dobbs, about three million people enter the US illegally each year. He cites the cost of that illegal influx as $200 billion annually in depressed wages, $50 billion in social services and health care costs and $20 billion remitted annually by immigrants to friends and family in Mexico at a time when the US runs, he says, a $45 billion trade deficit with Mexico.
In his Univision 41 interview, Dobbs blamed a triad of the Bush administration, US multinational corporations, and the administration of Mexican president Vincente Fox for encouraging the illegal influx. He called the Fox government “ineffective” and said that “the rate of poverty in Mexico is embarrassing.
“We are providing through remittances from illegal immigrants primarily…$20 billion to Mexico every year, and still the government of Mexico cannot improve the lives of its people. That is shameful. It is Vincente Fox, not George Bush, who is now in charge of US immigration policy, because we’ve permitted it…That is astonishing,” Dobbs concluded. He maintains that the governments of both nations are in league with US multinational corporations to bring poorly paid illegal immigrants to the US in order to depress US wages. “This is a crisis,” he said. “It is depressing wages, is allowing for the exploitation of men and women in the workforce….”
Dobbs cited illegal immigration as evidence of a failure of America’s border security that left the nation vulnerable to terrorism. “If three million people, whether they come here to improve their lives, whether they come here to rejoin families, whatever the reason…If they can cross our borders, why can’t a terrorist? Why cannot someone who means to give this country great harm? Nobody has ever been able to give a satisfactory answer to that.”
A concerned Mexican, who lived in New York for several years before returning to Mexico to work in the upcoming presidential election, disagreed.
“We have not had since September 11, even one terrorist apprehended crossing the border between the US and Mexico,” said Arturo Sarukhan, who was the Consul General of Mexico in New York until earlier this month. Sarukhan also disparaged Dobbs’ conspiracy theory of illegal immigration.
“The Mexicans who are crossing the border are not here because they drive a Mazda in Mexico and now they want a Mercedes Benz. They are here because they have to put food on the table,” Sarukhan told Univision 41’s Martinez.
In a way, Dobbs agrees with the former Mexican consul. Much of his ire is directed at those who hire illegal aliens in violation of US law. “Most illegal aliens are wonderful, hardworking people. The do wonderful work for the companies and the employers who hire them are violating the law,” he said. “My heart goes out to those illegal aliens who are here to become an American or are here because they want to improve their lives. But if we continue to permit this, we are destroying our way of life for an entire generation, and it is our responsibility to make sure the American way of life is preserved.”
Dobbs ruled out deportations as a solution, saying that some way was needed to legalize the status of the undocumented now living and working in the US. “There is a period of time in which people have demonstrated that they mean well and want to live with respect for our values and traditions and laws,” he said. “For those people, I think the humane thing to do is to find a way to accommodate them and give them that opportunity for the privilege of citizenship.” However, so long as the border remains porous, Dobbs said, “amnesty is out of the question for me.”
Univision Communications Inc. is the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States. Its operations include Univision Network, the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast television network in the U.S. reaching 98% of U.S. Hispanic Households; TeleFutura Network, a general-interest Spanish-language broadcast television network, which was launched in 2002 and now reaches 86% of U.S. Hispanic Households; Galavisión, the country’s leading Spanish-language cable network; Univision Television Group, which owns and operates 62 television stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico; Univision Radio, the leading Spanish-language radio group which owns and/or operates 69 radio stations in 16 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets and 4 stations in Puerto Rico; Univision Music Group, which includes Univision Records, Fonovisa Records, La Calle Records and a 50% interest in Mexico-based Disa Records labels as well as Fonomusic and America Musical Publishing companies; and Univision Online, the premier Spanish-language Internet destination in the U.S. located at www.univision.com. Univision Communications also has a 50% interest in TuTv, a joint venture formed to broadcast Televisa’s pay television channels in the U.S., and a non-voting 14.9% interest in Entravision Communications Corporation, a public Spanish-language media company. Univision Communications is headquartered in Los Angeles with television network operations in Miami and television and radio stations and sales offices in major cities throughout the United States.
For more information, please visit www.univision.net.
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Ted Faraone
Faraone Communications
212-489-1313
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