LOU DOBBS TONIGHT

Aired January 17, 2006 - 18:00   ET

The Situation Room

LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everybody.
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DOBBS: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today announced new initiatives. Initiatives, they say, will both increase border security and make it easier for foreigners to travel to the United States.

Is this political posturing or is it for real?

Lisa Sylvester reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The departments of Homeland Security and State are eager to throw out the welcome mat for foreign tourists, students and workers. At an event with a business-friendly audience, secretaries Michael Chertoff and Condoleezza Rice used words like "streamline," "expedite" and "smarter screening."

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: We seek to use new information technology to renew America's welcome, making it as easy as possible to foreign visitors to travel to the United States and to do so securely and safely.

SYLVESTER: It was billed as a joint vision on secure borders and open doors. A lot was mentioned of opening doors, but virtually nothing to secure borders and no mention of the illegal immigration crisis. Critics sum it up as one big photo-op.

ROSEMARY JENKS, NUMBERSUSA: I think we'll hear a whole lot more (INAUDIBLE) border security, and I think most of it will be fluff. You know, the administration recognizes that it's got to talk the talk so that it doesn't have to walk the walk. SYLVESTER: The timing is interesting. The Bush administration says it wants to soften its image after tough security measures were put if place after the 9/11 attacks. But immigration reform groups say it's not a coincidence that the Senate is scheduled to debate immigration reform next month. And the White House has been having trouble selling its guest worker program.

MARK KRIKORIAN, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: There's no demonstration that this -- this White House is committed to enforcing the law and is actually implementing the systems that are necessary before we even talk about guest worker programs. This is a spoonful of enforcement to make the amnesty go down.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER: And immigration reform groups says the United States has always welcomed visitors and already has one of the most generous travel policies over the world, so our welcome mat has been just fine. From 2003 to 2004, the United States welcomed more than 46 million visitors -- Lou.

DOBBS: An interesting case of emphasis on the part of Secretary Chertoff and Secretary Rice, and an interesting continued omission on the part the administration, an abject refusal to secure this nation's borders while conducting a war on terror.

SYLVESTER: Indeed, Lou. This is a perfect example of what we see is they want to try to send a message, a lot of smoke and mirrors, that they're being tough on border enforcement and the like. But when you pull back that first layer, you see there's not a whole lot there -- Lou.

DOBBS: And it's a pretty categorical statement on the part of this administration and the Republican Party that they think voters and our viewers are abject fools to continue these kind of political games.

SYLVESTER: Well, that's where we come in, to at least point out this discrepancy, this disconnect between what we're hearing and what the general public actually wants.

DOBBS: Lisa Sylvester, thank you for that excellent report.

Lisa Sylvester from Washington.

Tonight, the effort to secure this nation's borders has a new opponent. It is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has launched an aggressive battle against the interests of the United States in an effort to defeat border security legislation.

Casey Wian reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Catholic Church just finished celebrating National Migration Week. From the pope in Rome to priests in the United States, the church is demanding justice for immigrants. A more accurate description would be expanded rights for illegal aliens.

Church leaders are calling on the faithful to help defeat the Sensenbrenner border security bill.

PETER GADIEL, 9/11 FAMILIES FOR A SECURE AMERICA: I think it doesn't exaggerate the situation to say that the Catholic Church is becoming one of the main enemies of American sovereignty. They simply do not support any measure that would secure our borders.

WIAN: Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney wrote to President Bush, claiming if the bill passes, "... priests, ministers, rabbis and others involved in various church-related activities will be forced to become quasi-immigration enforcement officials."

House Judiciary Committee staffers say that's completely false, as our fears that clergy would be prosecuted for aiding illegal aliens.

Church officials are also emulating open borders activists by playing the race card.

Brooklyn, New York, bishop Nicholas DiMarzio claims in his weekly column that, "Some in the media sometimes aid and abet those who are racist in distorting facts about immigrants, especially those who have entered this country without legal status."

Catholic Charities recently released a position paper called "Justice for Newcomers," where it declares, "The church does not support open borders. It recognizes a state's right and duty to control its borders and to enforce immigration laws."

Yet, the same organization operates several day labor hiring sites nationwide, where between 80 and 90 percent of workers are illegal aliens.

DAN STEIN, FED. FOR AMER. IMMIGRATION REFORM: If anybody gets in here illegally, Catholic Charities basically says, let them stay. Well, people have seen that, and they realize that's simply not a credible position, and that Catholic Charities has an enormous financial interest in continuing illegal immigration.

WIAN: This catholic opponent of Burbank's brand-new day laborer center apparently sees no conflict between his religion and border security.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm called to clothe the naked and I'm called to welcome the stranger. My parish is extremely active in the service to migrants and to the homeless. However, you as public officials are sworn to uphold the law.

WIAN: W called several branches of the Catholic Church for comment and none would agree to an interview. In a statement, the church says it "recognizes the rights of human persons to migrate so they can realize their God-given rights." (END VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: But apparently those rights are not universal. Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, a former top candidate to become pope, says Catholic immigrants should be admitted to Italy before those from Muslim countries. He says to save the identity of the Italian nation and to avoid civil unrest and to spare a lot of suffering, you can't allow all the immigrants in -- Lou.

DOBBS: And it's interesting. The refusal in all of the language used in these statements by the Catholic Church and certainly others, but peculiar and disheartening to see it coming from the Catholic Church, to refer to the issue as one of immigration, not illegal immigration.

WIAN: Right. There is no distinction in any of these documents between the rights of legal and the rights of illegal immigration.

The church's position is that they're basically all of same. Yet, at same time, they say that nations have the right to enforce immigration laws and to control their own borders. It's hard it see how those two positions add up -- Lou.

DOBBS: And it's hard it see why any institution, religious or otherwise, would ever argue with the right and the responsibility of any nation's government to provide security at its borders.

Casey Wian. Thank you.

That brings us to the subject of our poll tonight. Should churches that take political positions lose their tax exemptions?

Please cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We'll have the results later here in the broadcast.

And we'll have much more ahead on our broken borders.

Congressman J.D. Hayworth has written a new book, an important new book calling on our nation to do whatever it takes to secure our borders. He's our guest still ahead.

And the United States Supreme Court hands an important victory to the right to die movement and a defeat to the Bush administration.

And did Senator Hillary Clinton help or hurt herself in using "plantation" language when talking about the House of Representatives? We'll have that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: The United States Supreme Court today handed down a decision on the right to die in a 6-3 vote. The high court upheld Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law. It is the only such law in the country.

The Bush administration had tried to strike down that law by denying drug privileges to Oregon doctors practicing assisted suicide. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration exceeded its authority in the case.

A school district in California today agreed to stop offering a course on intelligent design. The El Cajon school district had been offering an elective philosophy course on this controversial theory which states that an intelligent being shaped the universe. But parents oppose that course and they sued the school district.

The parent says the course violates the separation of church and state. The school district said, "The teaching of intelligent design is an appropriate topic for our philosophy course."

And now it is time for some of your thoughts.

Joyce in Kentucky is following our series of special reports on the lobbying scandal in Congress which we entitled "The Best Government Money Can Buy."

Joyce wrote in to say, "Lou, my suggestion is make all politicians who take money wear those fancy suits like race car drivers" -- with those logos -- "listing everyone who has purchased their votes."

And Jim in Washington said, "Logic escapes me. If we are at war, the war on terror, how does President Bush justify a porous border?"

Beats me.

And Al in Arizona writes, "You ask where do Mexicans and for that matter everybody else get the idea they can cross our border with impunity? Why, from their two presidents, Bush and Fox, that's who."

And Michael, also writing from Arizona, said, "As a Mexican- American, I believe both president are a disgrace, and I believe border jumping is wrong."

And Catherine in Virginia said, "Lou, I can see where the Mexican population would mostly think that crossing our borders was their right. I mean, if our own government is promoting it, why shouldn't they?"

Send us your thoughts at loudobbs.com. We'll have more of your e-mails later here in the broadcast.

The United States and Mexico are far apart on the issue of their common border, law enforcement and immigration. But at least they agree on certainly one thing, and that is tequila.

Mexico and the United States signed an agreement today that would continue bulk exports of Mexican tequila to this country. Mexico had threatened to ban that bulk tequila export to ensure quality standard. Under this agreement, all tequila bottling will now be done in Mexico.

Imagine that. Coming up next here, why the failure if U.S. policy is allowing leftist governments to take power in Latin America and allowing communist China to expand its influence in this hemisphere.