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LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
Aired June 9, 2005 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY
NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening,
everybody. Tonight, an astonishing proposal to expand our borders
to incorporate Mexico and Canada and simultaneously further
diminish U.S. sovereignty. Have our political elites gone mad?
We'll have a special report.
[snip]
DOBBS: Border security is arguably the critical issue in this
country's fight against radical Islamist terrorism. But our
borders remain porous. So porous that three million illegal aliens
entered this country last year, nearly all of them from Mexico.
Now, incredibly, a panel sponsored by the Council on Foreign
Relations wants the United States to focus not on the defense of
our own borders, but rather create what effectively would be a
common border that includes Mexico and Canada.
Christine Romans has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Capitol Hill,
testimony calling for Americans to start thinking like citizens of
North America and treat the U.S., Mexico and Canada like one big
country.
ROBERT PASTOR, IND. TASK FORCE ON NORTH AMERICA: The best way to
secure the United States today is not at our two borders with
Mexico and Canada, but at the borders of North America as a whole.
ROMANS: That's the view in a report called "Building a North
American Community." It envisions a common border around the
U.S., Mexico and Canada in just five years, a border pass for
residents of the three countries, and a freer flow of goods and
people.
Task force member Robert Pastor.
PASTOR: What we hope to accomplish by 2010 is a common external
tariff which will mean that goods can move easily across the
border. We want a common security perimeter around all of North
America, so as to ease the travel of people within North America.
ROMANS: Buried in 49 pages of recommendations from the task force,
the brief mention, "We must maintain respect for each other's
sovereignty." But security experts say folding Mexico and
Canada into the U.S. is a grave breach of that sovereignty.
FRANK GAFFNEY, CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY: That's what would
happen if anybody serious were to embrace this strategy for
homogenizing the United States and its sovereignty with the very
different systems existing today in Canada and Mexico.
ROMANS: Especially considering Mexico's problems with drug
trafficking, human smuggling and poverty. Critics say the country
is just too far behind the U.S. and Canada to be included in a
so-called common community. But the task force wants military and
law enforcement cooperation between all three countries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Indeed, an exchange of personnel that bring
Canadians and Mexicans into the Department of Homeland Security.
ROMANS: And it wants temporary migrant worker programs expanded
with full mobility of labor between the three countries in the
next five years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: The idea here is to make North America more like the
European Union. Yet, just this week, voters in two major countries
in the European Union voted against upgrading -- updating the
European constitution. So clearly, this is not the best week to be
trying to sell that idea.
DOBBS: Americans must think that our political and academic elites
have gone utterly mad at a time when three-and-a-half years,
approaching four years after September 11, we still don't have
border security. And this group of elites is talking about not
defending our borders, finally, but rather creating new ones. It's
astonishing.
ROMANS: The theory here is that we are stronger together, three
countries in one, rather than alone.
DOBBS: Well, it's a -- it's a mind-boggling concept. Christine
Romans, thank you, as always.
CNN.com
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LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
Aired June 21, 2006 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY
NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[snip]
DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much -- Lisa Sylvester.
The Bush administration's open-borders policy and its decision to
ignore the enforcement of this country's immigration laws is part
of a broader agenda. President Bush signed a formal agreement that
will end the United States as we know it, and he took the step
without approval from either the U.S. Congress or the people of
the United States.
Bill Tucker reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America sounds benign, hardly like
a policy that critics call NAFTA on steroids. It's a deal that few
have even heard of.
REP. MARCY KAPTUR (D), OHIO: It's being done, again, by very few
people at the very top, on behalf of the investment class. But the
working class of people, political officials across our country
from communities, from cities and so forth, they don't know
anything about this.
TUCKER: Yet, it was agreed to by Mexico's President Fox, Canada's
Prime Minister Martin, and President Bush in 2005.
The administration officials counter their critics by saying
everything about SPP is on the White House Web site. And they say
the partnership is not a treaty, but more of an outline of
priorities between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Still,
some wonder why there haven't been public discussions about the
goals being pursued.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This SPP includes, for instance, a
committee that is sitting down to harmonize our meat inspection
and food safety. So, how far away from a trade agreement can your
dining room table and what you feed your kids be?
TUCKER: Other parts of the agreement mention border security as an
issue, which include all of North America. In fact, the name of
the agreement is not Security and Prosperity of the United States,
but of North America.
PETER MORICI, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, UNIVERSITY OF
MARYLAND: When we elect officials, we expect them to act on our
behalf. When we get involved in cooperative frameworks with other
countries for joint regulation of fisheries or rail transportation
or the skies, we're basically sharing our sovereignty with that
government and outsourcing some of what we give our elected
officials.
TUCKER: As disturbing as some find SPP, there is legislation in
the House introduced by Florida's Katherine Harris that closely
resembles the goals of the partnership.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: Included in that bill is a section which calls for the
securing of Mexico's southern border by the United States and
Canada.
Lou, that's not the border with the United States. That's the
border they share with Belize and Guatemala.
DOBBS: The idea that the White House would respond that this is on
their Web site, this involves intricate workings amongst the
Commerce Department of this country and Canada and Mexico's, of
course.
A regional prosperity and security program? This is absolute
ignorance. And the fact that we are -- we reported this, we should
point out, when it was signed. But, as we watch this thing
progress, these working groups are continuing. They're
intensifying. What in the world are these people thinking about?
TUCKER: Well, they say, look, these are a declaration and an
outline of our priorities.
And when I called them today, Lou, they said I was the first phone
call they had received literally since the deal was first signed.
So, people are not paying attention. And they're letting them, in
fact, get away with this.
DOBBS: You know, I was asked the other day about whether or not I
really thought the American people had the stomach to stand up and
stop this nonsense, this direction from a group of elites, an
absolute contravention of our law, of our Constitution, every
national value.
And I hope, I pray that I'm right when I said yes. But this is --
I mean, this is beyond belief.
Bill Tucker, thank you very much.
It brings us to the subject of our poll tonight: Do you think
maybe somebody should take a vote if we're going to merge the
United States with Canada and Mexico, maybe, you know, people like
you and me vote? Yes or no. Please cast your vote at LouDobbs.com.
We will have the results here later in the broadcast.
Coming up: A measure to raise wages for the lowest-paid Americans
goes before Congress. Which side is Congress on in the war on the
middle class? We will have the surprising answer coming up.
And the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, joins
me. We will be talking about the nuclear confrontation with Iran.
And the mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, says illegal aliens are
destroying his city, and he's ready to shut down businesses that
help them and hire them. We will have a live report from Hazleton.
And the mayor will be our guest here next.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Ladies and gentlemen of this honorable Parliament:
I am convinced that the time has come to reflect on the best way to build a new Community of North America. I am also convinced that Canada and Mexico have much to contribute to the design and operation of this regional cooperation and integration scheme, as well as to the new architecture required by a world of peace and prosperity.
Address by President Vicente Fox Quesada to the Canadian Parliament
Further Reading on North America - Council on Foreign Relations
