CNN, LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, May 2, 2005, Monday

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CNN

SHOW: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT 6:00 PM EST

May 2, 2005 Monday

TRANSCRIPT: 050201CN.V19

SECTION: NEWS; International

HEADLINE: Nuclear Defiance From North Korea; Blunder at Pentagon; Blair's Battle

BYLINE: Lou Dobbs, Andrea Koppel, Jamie McIntyre, William Schneider, Kitty Pilgrim, Casey Wian, Lisa Sylvester, Anderson Cooper

GUESTS: Ed Royce, Mitchell Reiss; Kris Kobach

HIGHLIGHT:
North Korea apparently test-fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today declared no one should doubt the U.S. ability to deter North Korea. Officials at the Pentagon inadvertently released a classified report about the death of an Italian intelligence agent at a U.S. checkpoint in Iraq. British Prime Minister Tony Blair faces a general election in just three days now, and illegal immigration is a huge issue in this campaign. A new study out today highlights the rising number of Hispanic workers in this country. Many of those new workers are, of course, illegal, illegal aliens who are displacing American workers and bringing wages for working U.S. citizens down. More than half of all of the farm workers in this country are illegal aliens working for low, exploitive wages. Interview with Congressman Ed Royce.

[skip to Hispanic Workers story]

DOBBS: And I have to ask you this, because within your report, and just now talking about illegal immigration and immigration, illegal immigration is obviously a very important issue in this country and the crisis...
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
DOBBS: ... of illegal immigration is intensifying. But it's very clear here, we're talking in the United States about illegal immigration. There seems to be the suggestion, and correct me if I'm wrong, that in the U.K. it's immigration and legal immigration that's a concern there.
SCHNEIDER: That's correct. The level of immigration has risen during the eight years of the labor government under Tony Blair. There's no denying that. Those are the official figures.
The level of illegal immigration no one knows. But people are worried about it, and they believe that there are growing numbers of people who are in this country illegally. So they are both issues here.
DOBBS: Bill Schneider, thank you very much, sir.
Still ahead, this economy does not benefit from illegal immigration. Employers do. Our special report tonight on an industry that benefits immensely from exploiting illegal labor.
And buy American. America's manufacturing base has been so diminished that there is no way we can comply with a proposed law to buy American. That story coming up.
DOBBS: A new group of volunteers is planning to help the Minuteman Project monitor our border with Mexico. The Friends of the Border Patrol will be deployed in California this coming August. The group's leader, Andy Ramirez, says citizens volunteering to defend our nation in time of war and crisis is a time-honored tradition. So far, 300 people have volunteered for the project, including former law enforcement and military officials.
The Minuteman Project, which attracted thousands of volunteers, ended over the weekend. The group said the month-long project helped apprehend 335 illegal aliens. That is despite intense criticism of the group, even from President Bush, who called the minutemen vigilantes. Even "The New York Times" this weekend ran what appeared to be a begrudging article about the success of the Minuteman Project.
A new study out today highlights the rising number of Hispanic workers in this country. Many of those new workers are, of course, illegal, illegal aliens who are displacing American workers and bringing wages for working U.S. citizens down.
Kitty Pilgrim has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Plenty of Americans want to work in the construction industry. But new immigrant workers snapped up about half the new jobs last year. And the Pew Hispanic Center says 70 percent of immigrants from Latin America are illegal.
The trend can be seen all over the economy in a range of jobs: plaster workers, hotel workers, service jobs in hotels and restaurants, hospital workers.
RAKESH KOCHHAR, PEW HISPANIC CENTER: What we found in the last year is that out of the 2.5 million jobs created in the economy, one million went to Latino workers, almost all of whom were recently- arrived immigrants.
PILGRIM: Newly-arrived immigrants are not just staying on the border. States showing the largest growth in immigrant population in the last four years, Tennessee, Alaska, Georgia, North Carolina, Washington, and Maryland. Legal or not, employers are hiring them. And wages are falling as new immigrants are willing to work for less.
The Pew Hispanic study found those who lose out the most are legal American-born Latinos. American Hispanic workers lost 44,000 jobs in laundry services and housework, and recent immigrants picked up nearly all of those jobs.
DANIEL GRISWOLD, CATO INSTITUTE: It confirms a lot of things that we already knew. One, that Hispanics who come here as immigrants are competing most directly with other recent Hispanic immigrants. Secondly, that immigrants are moving beyond traditional urban centers and out more into the countryside or suburban areas. PILGRIM: New immigrants are taking any work they can get and getting it in disproportionate numbers. Forty percent of new jobs went to newly-arrived Latino workers, even though they make up only 15 percent of the work force.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Now, the numbers from the Pew Center point out what many Americans have known intuitively for years, the recent wave of immigrant has made finding a job in certain industries harder to do and the wages in those industries, Lou, a lot harder to live on.
DOBBS: Now, the Pew study did not break out numbers in terms of illegal and legal immigrants.
PILGRIM: That's right. But when pressed, they said that they estimate from other studies about 70 percent of the Latino immigrants are illegal.
DOBBS: Why would they not put that bold faced straightforwardly in front of the readers of that study, those that they are trying to communicate?
PILGRIM: Yes. It was enigmatic why they didn't break it out into two different groups. But -- but when pressed, they did come up with that.
DOBBS: And it's enigmatic why any organization that has "Pew Hispanic Center" with the word "Hispanic," why it would not take great pains to differentiate the interest of illegal immigrants and those who are legal and who are embraced in this country.
PILGRIM: Particularly when the Hispanic population is the population that's being hurt. The legal Hispanic population is being hurt by this wave of illegal immigration.
DOBBS: And yet Hispanic activists, open border activists in this country, will try to claim some sort of basic ownership of Hispanic values when talking about illegal immigration. And they seem to be absolutely disdainful of the true interest of Hispanic-American workers in this country. It's mind-boggling.
PILGRIM: It certainly is. And -- but one thing is clear about this. Hispanics are being hurt, legal Hispanics are being hurt by this.
DOBBS: And nationally, wages are estimated to be somewhere around $150 billion, working wages in this country for U.S. citizens, $150 billion, and depressed wages a year. That, in addition to all of the other burdens, has obviously a tremendous impact on the economy. Not to mention society and our culture.
Kitty Pilgrim, thank you very much for the report.
One American industry that benefits greatly, perhaps more than any other, in fact, from the millions of illegal aliens in this country is agriculture. More than half of all of the farm workers in this country are illegal aliens working for low, exploitive wages.
Casey Wian reports from Santa Paula, California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds of thousands of farm workers in this country are illegal aliens. Growers know it, so does the government. It's a business grown dependent on lawbreakers and accomplices with little interference from authorities.
Growers hire middlemen harvesting companies or farm labor contractors who in turn hire the workers. This contractor who spoke on condition we conceal his identity says illegal aliens are often the only people willing to endure the physical demands and seasonal nature of farm labor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're forced to hire, you know, whoever is out there. And those type of workers are workers that are coming across the border, whether that is legal or otherwise. We're in kind of a catch-22 situation where if we don't come up with laborers we are just not going to be able to harvest the fruit
WIAN: Most harvesting companies require immigration documents from their workers. But the only real requirement is that documents can't be obvious frauds.
(on camera): The Labor Department estimates about half of the nation's farm workers are illegal aliens. Here in Ventura County, California, the number is much higher, about 80 percent. And farm labor contractors say they could double the wages they pay and still not attract enough legal workers.
(voice-over): Workers here average $8 to $9 an hour depending on the crop. The most productive can make twice that. But only for a few weeks at a time.
LANCE COMPA, LABOR LAW PROFESSOR, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: The hourly wage for a lot of farm workers isn't that bad, you know. I think this idea that growers are getting rich off exploiting low wages, there is a lot of exploitation, but it's not so much wages.
WIAN: Compa says California is one of only a handful of states that recognize farm worker unions. And even the largest of those say the beneficiary of illegal alien labor is not big agriculture but U.S. consumers. The average American spends just $7 a week on fresh produce.
ARTURO RODRIGUEZ, PRESIDENT, UNITED FARM WORKERS: Consumers obviously want the best food that they can, the best produced food that they can possibly get, at the best price that they can receive. And so those pressures are always on the agricultural industry, as well as the farm labor force.
WIAN: Other pressures include increased competition from Chinese and South American produce imports, harvested where wages and labor conditions are much worse. Casey Wian, CNN, Santa Paula, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: And on the subject of illegal immigration and border security, tonight the Mexican government is taking on one of our guests who appeared on this broadcast almost three weeks ago. Peter Gadiel, the president of the 9/11 Families for a Secure America was here as our guest to discuss his support for the Real I.D. Act, which is designed, of course, in part to keep drivers' licenses out of the hands of illegal aliens.
While he was here, Mr. Gadtiel showed us just how easily it is to obtain a Mexican I.D. card that many illegals are using to obtain drivers' licenses in some states. And he showed us his, his phony matricula consular.
Mr. Gadiel's appearance here prompted a sharply-worded letter from Mexico's counsel general. That leader asked Gadiel to surrender his matricula consular card, saying in part, "Our attorneys are currently exploring all legal avenues on this matter to determine responsibilities in the purchase and use of a forged Mexican government-issued I.D."
Peter Gadiel, for his part, says he is amazed by the letter from the Mexican government and says he has done nothing illegal. He will be here to talk about this astonishing development this coming Thursday. And we have yet to hear from the Mexican government as to how many letters of complaint they have sent to illegal aliens using matricula consulars as -- and other forged documents in this country to obtain jobs and entry to this country.
We'll continue to explore that with the Mexican government here.
That brings us to the subject of our poll tonight. Do you believe the Bush administration will ever get serious about border security, yes or no? Cast your vote, loudobbs.com. We'll have the results coming up tonight.
Next here, how some foreign manufacturers are getting away with labeling their products "Made in America." It's a good thing, too. We'll explain why. Our special report on that is next.
And then, new hope for the Real I.D. Act. Just weeks after it appeared stalled, perhaps dead. One sponsor of the legislation will tell us how it survived and its prospects now on Capitol Hill.
AND MORE….
LOAD-DATE: May 4, 2005