CNNFN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

CNNFN

SHOW: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT 06:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

HEADLINE: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT; CNNfn

GUESTS: Rod Blagojevich, Jed Babbin, Carl Haub, Sunny Lewis

BYLINE: Lou Dobbs, Ed Henry, Suzanne Malveaux, Kitty Pilgrim, Lisa Sylvester, Christine Romans

BODY:

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

DOBBS: Hundreds of thousands of Floridians tonight are still without power after Hurricane Charley swept across much of the state. Power officials warn that it could be yet another week before electricity is completely restored. The federal government has released $11 billion for the massive cleanup but the total cost of the destruction is expected to rise.

Nineteen people have been confirmed dead. Still, many are missing. And in New Mexico today, that state recovering from a huge mudslide that washed over much of the middle Rio Grande valley. Nearly 2 inches of rain fell in some areas along the Rio Grande valley. No injuries were reported.

And in England, a wall of water descended on a small tourist village. Emergency workers there in helicopters rescuing dozens of people from rooftops and trees as the water swept away cars and battered the small town. Many people were trapped in those cars. We have no word tonight on injuries.

In "Broken Borders" tonight we've reported here many times on a highly successful border patrol program to find and to arrest illegal aliens. That program was shut down after immigrants' rights groups complained that it was insensitive to illegal aliens. A group of frustrated citizens then demanded an explanation from a top White House official. Casey Wian reports from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In June, the border patrol's Temecula, California station arrested more than 400 illegal aliens as far as 100 miles from the Mexican border but the inland sweeps were suspended following complaints from immigrants' rights advocates.

Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson then promised to consider the sensitivities of interior immigration enforcement. Now he denies that inland sweeps have been stopped for good which didn't satisfy this group of angry citizens at a recent town hall meeting called by San Diego Congressman Darrell Issa.

REP. DARRELL ISSA ®, CALIFORNIA: The fact is we do not want to have people indiscriminately grabbed because they happen to be Hispanic.