CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight-Transcript

Interview

CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight-Transcript

DOBBS: The new illegal amnesty compromise has plenty of critics, a rising number of critics in fact in the Senate, and among them is Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

Senator Cornyn says this agreement doesn't go far enough to protect our borders and is frankly not a very strong concept. During those negotiations, Senator Cornyn came under verbal attack by one of the compromise's biggest supporters, Senator John McCain. Senator McCain using expletives directed at Senator Cornyn during a heated exchange.

Senator Cornyn joins us now from Capitol Hill. Senator, I have got to say, you're a man of immense constraint. If a man had said what Senator McCain is reported to have said to you, I would hope I would show as much class and constraint as you did, sir.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: Well, thanks, Lou. You know, Senator McCain apologized to me afterwards, and I have to say that we've probably all said things that we've later regretted.

But this is a pretty spirited debate and I can't think of many more important issues.

DOBBS: Well, this deal doesn't make any sense. And I've got to say, senator, it looked to me -- and I tried to exercise some forbearance, I saw this as an opportunity to secure our border, secure our ports, maybe an opportunity for a great assimilation, and what I saw here is a lack of honesty, forthrightness, and sincerity, frankly, across the board. How could this come to pass?

CORNYN: Well, there was an effort, as you know, after the failed attempt last year to pass immigration reform and where Republicans, I have to confess, as a Republican blew it because we didn't roll up our sleeves and work our way through the issue like we should have in a way that would come up with a better bill.

So now we're in a weakened position with Senator Kennedy basically leading the efforts in the Senate and frankly I think everybody tried to come up with a good product but, unfortunately, I think it falls short of a number of key respects.

DOBBS: What are the -- if I may ask very quickly, the very, your top objections to the outlines of this thing?

CORNYN: Well, let's talk about confidentiality. In 1986, the amnesty that was granted then, the law said that your application for that amnesty would remain confidential and could not be used by law enforcement personnel.

A few short years after that "The New York Times" wrote an article calling that the cause of one of the most massive frauds ever perpetrated against the federal government.

We got the same provision in this bill. We need to fix that through an amendment and I'll be offering one.

DOBBS: And one of the things in the -- is the idea that illegal alien gang members can simply renounce their membership and are accepted as qualified candidates for the so-called Z-visa, that law enforcement would have one day to determine whether to do a background check and determine whether or not someone could be admitted to that program? I mean these are absurdities, are they not?

CORNYN: Well, the key for me is we need to have a credible, workable, enforceable program. If we don't, then we will have perpetrated the same ruse on the American people that happened in 1986 where we got the amnesty, but we didn't get any enforcement and I don't think they'll forgive us for making the same mistake again.

DOBBS: I guess one of my questions is why should any citizen in this country trust either the House of Representatives or the United States Senate when we can listen to a Senator Harry Reid say he wants this bill voted on by this Friday, he had said that up until this weekend.

CORNYN: Right.

DOBBS: Irrespective of whether or not it's been read, whether or not it had been carefully evaluated. This is -- yours is the great deliberative body in government worldwide. How can it be reduced to this kind of absurdity?

CORNYN: Well, I had the same question. Of course this is the draft that we got about midnight on Saturday night. It's called a draft for discussion purposes only.

I think because of the ridiculousness of dropping this kind of voluminous document on us, expecting us to actually to be able to discuss with it our constituents, analyze it and make sure it will work under pressure, Senator Reid has finally now agreed to let this continue on for a reasonable period of time to have adequate debate and then amendments. I hope we'll be able to make it better.

DOBBS: Make it better? Frankly from what I've seen, senator, I'm not sure -- I thought one of the best starting points for legislation frankly was that of yours, Senator Kyl, the Cornyn-Kyl legislation of a year ago which went nowhere because of this administration.

Are we simply at a point where the American people are not going to be represented in this deal whatsoever? I mean, you have La Raza, MALDEF, all sorts of socioethnic centric groups represented. You have the Catholic Church represented, for example. You have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobbying group, the business roundtable at the table, but the American people -- where in the world do they find representation in this?

CORNYN: One of the biggest concerns I had during the discussions, Lou, is different senators would say, well, the groups will never agree to this.

You know what, I wasn't elected by a group, I was elected by roughly 23 million Texans and that's who I represent. I don't represent any groups and I think they deserve to have their voice heard. We'll hopefully have time now for them to see what is actually in this legislation and to make sure that their interests are represented as opposed to some special interest group.

DOBBS: Senator John Cornyn, as always, good to have you here.

CORNYN: Thanks, Lou.

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