[Dobbs:] Well, new evidence tonight of the Mexican drug cartels increasingly brazen tactics, and this occurred right on the border near Douglas, Arizona. All of it caught on tape by the U.S. Border Patrol. In the video, smugglers in one of two trucks, there you see them, use a ramp not to drive through a border fence but over it. Watch, this is amazing. This is talk about brazen. And then the trucks were stopped by a spike strip that had been laid down. One of the drug smugglers then started shooting. Fortunately, they didn't hit any of our Border Patrol agents, and others began throwing the bails of pot they had aboard back across the border into Mexico. All of this as the Border Patrol was moving in. Then the men seeing the Border Patrol set fire to one truck and fled in another truck. Agents found a half ton of marijuana valued at a million dollars. No arrests were made. The drug wars raging along our border with Mexico is being ignored by many ethnocentric special interest groups because they support open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens and want to maintain current levels of illegal immigration. The groups say amnesty will be adopted under the incoming Obama administration and they are pressing hard irrespective of the national interests or our immigration laws. Casey Wian has the report.
[Casey Wian, Cnn Correspondent:] Supporters of amnesty for illegal aliens are cheering as Inauguration Day approaches. They believe Barack Obama and his Cabinet will soon push for a massive legalization program.
[Obama:] I am strongly in favor of a comprehensive immigration approach.
[Wian:] Pro amnesty groups such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and America's Voice this week announced plans to lobby for a legalization program. They cite Cabinet nominees Janet Napolitano and Bill Richardson as allies, but the amnesty advocates often ignore the border security component of comprehensive immigration reform which even presumed allies stress.
[Gov. Bill Richardson,  Commerce Secretary Nominee:] We have got to secure our borders. We have got to find those who knowingly hire illegal workers. But there has to be a legalization plan.
[Gov. Janet Napolitano,  Homeland Security Secretary Nominee:] I means enforcing our immigration law, enforcing at the border, but also in the interior of the country, particularly against employers who continue to higher illegal labor.
[Wian:] Complicating their plans, the growing threat of illegal labor competing for American jobs amid the economic crisis. The Mexican government and the Federation for American Immigration Reform have both reported a growing number of illegal aliens have left the United States on their own. Remittances, money sent home by Mexicans living in the United States are down about two percent so far this year but are still expected to exceed $23 billion. The soon to be Obama administration has been nearly silent on the issue the Justice Department this week called the biggest organized crime threat to the United States, Mexical drug cartels. Their victims include more than 7,000 Mexicans killed in the last two years in the drug war escalating along our southern border and more than 20 million American addicts and other users of illegal drugs.
[Joseph Califano, Columbia University:] I think we have to address both supply and demand. On the supply side, we have to both reduce the drugs coming into this country with respect to the demand side, we need a major public education campaign.
[Wian:] Nearly 9,000 Americans died from illegal drug abuse in 2005 according to the Centers for Disease Control. Despite billions of dollars in resources and a doubling of the size of the Border Patrol during the Bush administration, there's been only a small decrease in the supply of drugs coming across our southern border. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently talked about the likelihood of comprehensive reform passing next year, saying quote, "I don't expect much of a fight at all." Border security advocates say the fight against drug cartels for control of our nation's borders should come first Lou?
[Dobbs:] One would think, and Senator Reid, the Senate majority leader, as you say, also bragging about a conversation with John McCain a few weeks ago in which he said he and McCain had basically a deal. John McCain fancying himself something of a power broker on this issue. And the American people, we're going to find out just how much they want to have a voice in this society. It's really extraordinary. By the way, you mentioned America's Voice and you mentioned the Catholic Bishops. A lot of folks probably don't know what America's Voice really is. Why don't you tell us?
[Wian:] Well, it's a group that is advocating for what they call comprehensive immigration reform. What we on this broadcast call amnesty for illegal aliens, Lou.
[Dobbs:] And they're supported by the usual suspects? The business lobby, the ethnocentric lobbyists, the usual suspects?
[Wian:] I believe so, Lou. I don't have in my head a complete list of who their supporters are, but I think you're right.
[Dobbs:] All right. Good. Sometimes I get lucky. All right. Thanks, Casey. Casey Wian. Straight ahead here, internal battles threaten to tear apart the left wing advocacy group ACORN. It apparently is on the verge of collapse. We'll have that report, next.