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SECRET SUMMIT IN PLAIN SIGHT! BUSH-USA Hosts NORTH AMERICAN UNION (SPP) In New Orleans With CALDERON-MEXICO & HARPER-CANADA - Why You Cannot Trust Any GOP President! - RI10
posted Thursday, 24 April 2008
SECRET SUMMIT IN
PLAIN SIGHT!
BUSH-USA Hosts
NORTH AMERICAN
UNION (SPP) In
New Orleans With
CALDERON-MEXICO
& HARPER-CANADA
- Why You Cannot
Trust Any GOP
President! - RI10
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/21/ldt.01.html
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
Clinton, Obama Go Negative in Final Push for Votes;
North American Union?
Aired April 21, 2008 - 19:00 ET
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you.
Tonight -- the so-called three amigos, President Bush, President Calderon of Mexico and Prime Minister Harper of Canada, they're holding a summit meeting in New Orleans. Are they trying to create a North American Union without consent of either Congress or the American people? We'll have that special report.
And stunning new evidence tonight of the potentially devastating consequences of the federal government's open border policies, we'll have that special report from Los Angeles, all of that and all the day's news and much more, coming up straight ahead here tonight.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: news, debate, and opinion for Monday, April 21. Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: -- President Bush holding a summit meeting with Mexican and Canadian leaders in New Orleans. Now, this is going to sound a little more Republican to you. They are there pushing for a North American Union. Bill Tucker will have our report from New Orleans. Bill?
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, we know they're meeting but we don't know exactly what they are talking about or what they might be agreeing to. And that has a lot of people just plain angry. We'll be back with the report, Lou.
DOBBS: Yeah, part of the story is we've got three heads of state and no one knows what the heck they're talking about.
TUCKER: Exactly.
DOBBS: I don't think that's going to please too many people in Canada or perhaps even Mexico. It sure won't please that many people in the United States of America.
And you won't believe the harsh impact of our federal government's open-border policies on one of this country's biggest cities. We'll have that special report and a great deal more straight ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: President Bush is in New Orleans tonight. He's there in a summit meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Those three leaders are expected to talk about NAFTA, so-called free trade among the three nations. Ed Henry is traveling with the president tonight, and he is, of course, in New Orleans with him.
Ed, tell us all about it.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, as host, the president got to choose the city. He chose New Orleans because he wanted to highlight it as a comeback city and, in fact, today he appeared with President Calderon, reopening the Mexican Consulate here that had been closed for some six years.
Then the two leaders emerged from a closed-door meeting to talk of trade, both saying that it's time basically for the U.S. Congress to stop stalling the Colombian trade deal. But also Mr. Bush used this as an occasion to stand up and defend NAFTA, which as you know is under assault right now on the presidential campaign trail for not living up to its hype.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you and I grew up, in our respective countries, the border region of Mexico and the United States was very poor. And today when you go down there, there's prosperity on both sides of the border. A lot of that has to do with trade. Our trade has tripled, and our economies have grown, and this has been a very positive aspect for both our countries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: While selling trade, Mr. Bush will not be issuing a new push for comprehensive immigration reform. Officials saying they realize that basically there's no point in pushing something that is hopelessly stalled on Capitol Hill. Also they don't want to push it at a time when John McCain, the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, is trying to woo conservatives. President Calderon, however, decided to bring up what he called comprehensive immigration reform, saying he realizes the presidential election year, so it's not going to happen this year, but he said he hopes the U.S. government deals with it next year by bringing, quote, "respect and responsibility to the process". Lou?
DOBBS: Did President Calderon talk about in any way taking responsibility for the people that he is effectively ushering out of his country because they're too poorly educated, they lack the skills, and are simply so impoverished that they have to flee the country and that -- did he take any responsibility as he put it himself?
HENRY: He did not appear to take any responsibility in his own remarks. Interesting President Bush also raised the issue of drug smuggling across the border and that's another issue obviously the Mexican government is going to have to deal with, Lou.
DOBBS: Well, we say that they're going to have to deal with it. But Mexico remains the largest source of methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin and marijuana into the United States and that president you're reporting on has allowed that trade to go with his blessings because he's refused to secure that border. Thank you very much, Ed Henry.
Protesters tonight are gathered there in New Orleans. They're voicing outrage over the so-called SECURITY AND PROSPERITY PARTNERSHIP OF NORTH AMERICA known as well as the NORTH AMERICAN UNION. Critics say these three leaders are negotiating that agreement in secret. Bill Tucker has our report from New Orleans.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will exercise our Second Amendment, against any and all who will...
TUCKER (voice-over): There is some unease in some quarters over what the administration calls the SECURITY AND PROSPERITY PARTNERSHIP, the SPP. The meetings among the United States, Canada and Mexico are not secret. The discussions are! And there's anger over it, some, labor leaders.
DAVE COLES, ENERGY & PAPERWORKERS UNION OF CANADA: This is about corporate rule, not corporate America, corporate world taking over the responsibilities that belong to the legislatures and the parliaments and the governments of our country.
GARY BEEVERS, UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA: This is all being done behind closed doors with no transparency whatsoever and it shouldn't be secret in this country. It shouldn't be secret in Canada, and it shouldn't be secret in Mexico.
TUCKER: But it is. Even the human rights group, Amnesty International sent an open letter to the leaders saying, quote, "the secrecy and lack of accountability that has marked the development of SPP leave insufficient room for informed involvement of civil society".
The Bush administration denies any secrecy about the talks that it says are to address common security concerns and facilitate trade and travel. On its Web site, spp.gov, it dismisses criticism that there is no oversight of SPP by Congress, as, quote, "a myth". Some in Congress find that laughable.
REP. MARCY KAPTUR (D), OHIO: There have been no hearings on the SPP negotiations and transactions. In fact, I signed a letter with parliamentarians from Canada, Mexico and the United States, asking that these discussions not proceed forward until the legislative bodies of all three countries are informed as to what's going on.
TUCKER: Kaptur and more than a dozen other representatives sent a letter to President Bush asking that the talks be stopped. Some in Canada agree. Maude Barlow heads a public advocacy group.
MAUDE BARLOW, COUNCIL OF CANADIANS: This is profoundly anti- Democratic. Decisions are being made at these committees almost as if it's sort of a treaty outside of any democratic process around areas that will affect all of our lives. So, we are here. We're not going away and we think that...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: And these are extensive talks, Lou. They are wide ranging, covering anything from environmental concerns to labor conditions, to regulatory issues. Critics say all of this secrecy amounts to what they call a full assault on the sovereignty of the United States. Lou?
DOBBS: As well as the sovereignty of Canada and Mexico, for that matter.
TUCKER: True.
DOBBS: You know, I just can't think of how in the world this administration could rationalize these meetings, take one more shot if you will, here, Bill, and tell us what this White House of ours -- I'll use the term loosely -- is saying.
TUCKER: It's not a secret. We have a Web site. You can go and see what we're talking about.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Let me try this again.
TUCKER: There's no need...
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Let me try this again.
TUCKER: OK.
DOBBS: What are they saying is being discussed...
TUCKER: Trade issues, facilitating the trade in the movement of people back and forth between the borders, Lou. That's the official word on what's being discussed.
DOBBS: And that's the sum total of what they will divulge?
TUCKER: That's about -- puts it all together in one nice little package, Lou.
DOBBS: That's incredible. And to think that, you know, this is what's great. This country has come to a point where we're accepting this kind of nonsense from this kind of administration sitting in the White House that belongs to the American people after all, or at least it used to. Thank you very much, Bill Tucker, from New Orleans.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur will be here later. We'll be discussing the North American Summit, and the negotiations and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which is to lead to, of course, the North American Union. This is also the subject of our poll tonight.
Are you outraged that talks that could lead to a North American Union are being held in secrecy by the governments of the United States, Mexico, and Canada? Yes or no? Cast your vote at Loudobbs.com. We'll have the results here later.
Up next -- a troubling new report tonight on the very real consequences of our government's open borders policies.
Stay with us. We're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Academic and political elites refuse to make a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants as they analyze what is happening in this country, security of our borders, and, of course, immigration policy. Now, there's a compelling new study that also fails to differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants, but does demonstrate that we are not successfully integrating immigrants into our society. Casey Wian has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than three million Los Angeles county residents, a third of the population, are immigrants. And according to the Nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, government policies have failed to integrate these L.A. newcomers into American society. And that could foreshadow what happens throughout the United States.
For example, 46 percent of L.A.'s workforce is foreign born, while more than one in five immigrants live in poverty. Forty percent of Los Angeles school students and a third of adults are English language learners; amazingly four out of every five elementary schoolchildren still learning English were born in the U.S. The study blasts the federal government for failing to develop a national policy on integrating immigrants.
MICHAEL FIX, MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE: Are we putting too much at risk by letting market forces take their course? What we have to do is start to invest more. We've had a great return on a very small investment so far historically and the question is can we afford to spend so little as we go forward with these fairly significant numbers of newcomers and of people who don't speak English particularly well given the demands of the economy.
WIAN: The study also found integration barriers are even larger for families headed by what it called unauthorized parents. One group advocating reduced immigration to the United States criticized the study for blurring the lines between legal and illegal immigrants, but agreed with its main conclusion.
RICK OLTMAN, CALIFORNIANS FOR POP. STABILIZATION: One of the comments that referred to integration of immigrants as an afterthought. In fact, that's not accurate. There's no thought to integrating any of these immigrants. It's simply to grab the cheap labor as quickly as you possibly can to maximize your profit. We agree immigrants should be integrated into the society and welcomed.
WIAN: The study made no recommendations on what to do with illegal immigrants in the United States, variously estimated at anywhere between 12 million to 20 million people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIAN: But it does make the familiar argument that demographic trends will require more immigrant labor in the future in the United States to remain economically competitive.
Lou?
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Why no distinction between legal and illegal immigrants?
WIAN: Well, they did make -- the study did make a distinction in part by saying that illegal immigrants have a much more difficult time integrating into American society than legal --
DOBBS: Well, if they acknowledge that there is such a thing as an illegal immigrant, why in the world, and if there is somewhere between 12 million and 20 million of them, you would think that the least -- the least challenged intellect in academia would understand it would be important to deal with a number of them and the services that would be required and the potential that they would represent.
WIAN: Yeah, we asked them why they didn't take a position. They mentioned the failure of comprehensive immigration reform as they called it, why they didn't take a position on that. They said that they didn't want to get involved in that kind of a political issue. They wanted to just basically put out the framework, the issues that are there out, the numbers and the scope and the size of this problem so policy makers can actually make rational, informed decisions.
DOBBS: They can't even begin to until they understand the dimension of the problem.
WIAN: Yeah, and I think that this report actually lays it out quite starkly. For example, it says that, to teach English to all of the immigrants, both legal and illegal, in the United States, to get them up to acceptable level of English proficiency would take 600 million man-hours of teaching, Lou, so that really shows the staggering size of this problem.
DOBBS: Yes, it does. But it doesn't demonstrate to the degree to which the social services are being provided are adequate for those who are here legally as opposed to those services that would be wanting for those who are here illegally.
You don't have to take one side of an argument to be concerned by both aspects of that discussion and the parameters of the problem.
But, you know, there's so much political correctness and hidebound orthodoxy that has captured academia in this country, we're probably very good to have this beginning to this rudimentary beginning to a study.
Thank you very much, Casey, Casey Wian.
And coming up here next, troubling charges of the dangerous conspiracy, endangering the lives of law enforcement officers in this country and rising outrage over the Bush administration's efforts to create a North American union, cramming it down the throats of the American people and our congress. A leading congressional critic is Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.
And by the way, what is going on with this administration in its waning days, or should I say its lame months? Stay with us. We'll continue in one moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur is calling on President Bush to halt negotiations of the so-called security and prosperity partnership until congress is told just what in the world this government is doing. Congresswoman Kaptur joins me tonight from her home district in Toledo, Ohio.
Congresswoman, as always, great to have you here.
REP. MARCY KAPTUR (D), OHIO: Thank you.
DOBBS: Why is the administration not responding to you and to the calls from others to explain exactly what they're doing?
KAPTUR: Well, the executive branch really thinks that they can run everything and they like to ignore congress. This is another example on the trade-making front where the executive branch goes beyond its constitutionally authorized powers and doesn't want to inform the congress, which has the key trade-making authorities under the constitution.
This is kind of a follow-on to NAFTA, Lou, called the SPP, and that's what this meeting down in Louisiana's all about. I think it's the third meeting they've had in four years.
DOBBS: Right, right. And the idea that they would not be responsive to you, is your -- is the leadership of the house, Speaker Pelosi, in the senate, Senator Reid, are they responsive and demanding of their prerogatives on the issue of -- of this agreement, security and prosperity partnership, so-called, which is the foundation for a North American union?
KAPTUR: Well, you know what, they've been focusing on of late is Colombia, the free trade agreement with Colombia. The issue of mortgage foreclosures, the additional funds that are being asked for the war in Iraq. There are on lot of other issues that have come forward, and so this is kind of sliding by I think without a lot of attention.
DOBBS: Well, have you brought to it their attention?
KAPTUR: We are --
DOBBS: I'm sorry, go ahead.
KAPTUR: What I was going to say is that we are doing everything we can to bring it to their attention. The respective committees that should be holding hearings and are not, and I think just other issues have taken precedence.
DOBBS: Well, at this point it's pretty clear that we have a lame-duck president who is basically going to tell you people to go exactly where he's been telling you to go for some time and can do so without real consequence because he's only got another, what, about seven months in office. It seems your leadership should be more responsive to you on this issue. How concerned are you about this -- this North American union prospect?
KAPTUR: I'm very concerned about it because just this year, this past year, we had a $76 billion trade deficit with Mexico. We were told that after NAFTA passed, we would have more of our exports going down there. We've been exporting our jobs and importing goods from there. And unfortunately importing a lot of workers, who were thrown out of work down there and farmers when were thrown out of work on their land.
DOBBS: Right.
KAPTUR: So NAFTA's really hurt us a great deal as you know and the SPP we believe to be an expansion of that done on the executive side with no congressional oversight helping to push the continent toward this NAFTA highway, the superhighway that they want to bring up through Texas, through the center part of the country and Canada.
DOBBS: The transatlantic corridor, right?
KAPTUR: There have been -- we were successful in passing an amendment in the house to prevent that from happening. They didn't pass it in the senate. And it passed by quite a wide margin, so, I think congress' focus, that particular vote, but the administration then keeps negotiating behind closed doors.
DOBBS: All right. Well, as soon as they can find someone not to negotiate with, say, Senator Harry Reid in the senate, perhaps it will be a more propitious outcome for all of us. Marcy Kaptur, congresswoman from Ohio, we thank you very much for being with us. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.
KAPTUR: Thank you. Thank you.
DOBBS: Up at the top of the hour, "THE ELECTION CENTER" with Campbell Brown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Tonight's poll results -- 98 percent of you are outraged at talks that could lead to a North American union are being held in secrecy by the governments of the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Let's take a look at more of your thoughts now. Thousands of you emailing in about illegal alien drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila's guilty plea last week to four drug smuggling charges, and my interview with U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, the man who led that prosecution. Davila is of course the illegal alien drug smuggler who testified against former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean in exchange for immunity. The agents are serving 11- and 12-year sentences.
Paul in Colorado said, "Dear Lou, when it comes to the Ramos and Compean case, it's hard to tell who is lying more, Johnny Sutton or Aldrete Davila".
Marie in North Carolina, "I'm so outraged that these Border Patrol agents are still in jail. What is wrong with this country?"
Jimmy in Kentucky said, "Lou, be American, buy American. That is the only way the people will ever take back America. Everything is at stake. Be American, buy American."
We love hearing from you. Send us your thoughts at loudobbs.com.
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