Strong Legislation for Broken Borders
DOBBS: And did I mention Senator Barack Obama is welcome here anytime to discuss illegal immigration and his pandering and misrepresentation of my position? I would love to hear what the man actually thinks about and plans to do about illegal immigration and border security. Well legislation to crack down on illegal employers of illegal aliens and to strengthen our border security has been stalled in committee by the House leadership. But now there is a move by House Republicans and even some Democrats to force a full debate on the legislation. Louise Schiavone has our report.</s>LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't ready to embrace it, but 49 Democrats and 93 Republicans want a full debate on an immigration reform bill. The measure would toughen border security and make the government and its contractors verify their workers' legal status.</s>REP. HEATH SHULER (D), NORTH CAROLINA: We have both Democrats and Republicans, we have farm groups, we have police groups, organizations, we have the largest unions, we have the largest business groups all sponsoring and truly feel that this is the best piece of legislation to be able to deal with the immigration problem that we have.</s>SCHIAVONE: But there are deepening divisions within the Democratic Party on immigration.</s>BRIAN DARLING, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: You have the Hispanic caucus on one side. You have your blue dogs on the others and Speaker Pelosi is having a hard time within her Democrat caucus to get consensus on the issue of immigration.</s>SCHIAVONE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's spokesman told CNN quote, "Bipartisan leadership discussions have taken place to find common ground legislation that deals with enforcement, jobs, borders and those who are already here, so there is no floor votes scheduled at this time", end quote. The bill has been farmed out to eight separate committees and now a discharge petition to move the Shuler bill to the floor is quickly collecting names of members of both parties.</s>SCHIAVONE: Lou, insiders say it is possible the bill could get the required 218 votes by week's end. Congressman Shuler believes that he can get 300 House votes for his border security and worker verification bill -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Louise, it looks like the Democratic leadership again is trying to fight those who in Congress would represent the interest of the majority, the interest of the American middle class.</s>SCHIAVONE: And it is very troubling, Lou, to members of the Democratic Party who need to get votes for this coming election in November. And they feel that their leadership is not behind them. But by the same token, this is fraught with perils for the Republicans too, because they know that this puts them at odds with the GOP presidential candidate.</s>DOBBS: It's always great to see intellectual integrity and courage on the part of the leadership in the House whether that leadership is Democratic or Republican. It is a rare sight indeed. Louise Schiavone, thank you very much. Time now to look another some of your thoughts. Mike in Florida wrote in about Senator Obama's well misrepresentation of my position on illegal immigration saying I said illegal aliens should be deported. He writes, "Lou, I am an Obama supporter and that will not change. That being said, it is important that he -- Senator Obama -- gets his facts right. I've watched your news program for years and during that time I can attest that you have never said that all illegal immigrants need to be removed from this country. He needs to get that correct." Yes, he does. And Tina in Pennsylvania, "It appears Governor Spitzer is only apologizing because he got caught. Evidently he didn't have enough respect for his family, his career, or the people who elected him to office. It's funny what power does to a person." And sometimes it's just plain tragic. Ken in South Carolina said, "Well Lou, at least Eliot Spitzer can still achieve half of his dream. Instead of delivering illegal driver's licenses, he now has the opportunity to deliver license plates made in the good ole US of A made by and inspected by number nine." We'll have more of your thoughts here later in the broadcast. Each of you whose e-mail is read here receives a copy of my book "Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit". And we invite you to catch my new radio show Monday through Friday, "The Lou Dobbs Show". Go to loudobbsradio.com to find local listings for "The Lou Dobbs Show". Up next, three of my favorite radio talk show hosts join me. They'll give us their assessment of Senator Obama's latest attack on me and what's happening with his presidential campaign. Stay with us. As Boeing steps us its campaign to stop the outsourcing of our defense, Senator Maria Cantwell joins us, a leading opponent of that Pentagon decision to buy European aircraft over American. And are middle class still reeling from our mortgage crisis? I'll be joined by the chairman of the financial services committee, Congressman Barney Frank. He'll be with us next. Stay with us. We're coming right back.