CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

DOBBS: My guest tonight is a vocal supporter of the president's plan to give millions of illegal aliens in this country legal status. Senator John Cornyn of Texas has been appointed chairman of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration, border security and citizenship, joining us tonight from Capitol Hill. Senator, good to have you with us.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN ®, TEXAS: Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: Let's begin with, if we could, just the basic issue of border security. The estimate that 3 million illegal aliens crossed our borders last year, and I'd like to talk about border security first before going to immigration. Just in terms of border security, that's mind-boggling. It suggests that we have none at all, wouldn't you say?

CORNYN: I agree with you, Lou. Our borders are too porous, and in a post-9/11 world even though we may have ignored it basically since the last amnesty bill that was passed in 1986, which I don't support by the way, we've simply got a mandate now I think from the American people and out of self-defense, we need to secure our borders. We need to know who is coming in and who is leaving and who is in our country and where they are. Unfortunately we don't have that information right now.

DOBBS: We don't have that information, and we simply haven't the manpower to create that information, to gather that information. The president's new budget, Senator, calls for an additional 210 border patrol agents. Is the president trying-is this administration trying to say that we're just kidding about border security and immigration?

CORNYN: Well, I support a larger number. I think the federal government has for such a long time neglected its responsibilities, but unfortunately that financial burden and the consequences of illegal immigration has fallen on local border communities and on taxpayers' generally when it's a federal responsibility, and so I think the federal government has to step up, including on more border patrol.

DOBBS: And you support, then, Senator Dianne Feinstein's legislation that would bring back the program to help states fund the incarceration of illegal aliens, amongst other things?

CORNYN: Absolutely. We-you know, here again, living in Texas, being from San Antonio, we see it-see the issue up close and personal, and unfortunately the federal government here in Washington does not pay attention to the problem like it should, nor fund programs, leaving the burden on local hospitals, local taxpayers and local law enforcement.

DOBBS: President Bush maintains that his guest worker proposal is not amnesty, but nearly everyone that I have talked with, with whom I have spoken, has said it's amnesty by any definition. How do you react? CORNYN: Well, I am opposed to amnesty. What I believe would be amnesty is to say, OK, you're here illegally, you can go ahead and stay here, and by the way, we'll make you an American citizen.

What I proposed is what we call a work and return program, not a work and stay program, but it's part of a larger-a larger issue, and that is border security, so we know who's coming in our country and when they leave, and we know for purposes of homeland security where people are when they're in our country. But unfortunately we have about 10 million people who are currently here, about 6 million in the workforce, and we couldn't even find them if we wanted to now. We simply don't have the means due to neglect over the last 20 years or so.

DOBBS: Do you think we're about to find the will, Senator Cornyn?

CORNYN: I think in a post-9/11 world we'll find the will to pass some real document integrity legislation, which I support. We've got some programs that are being implemented now, the U.S. visit program, to monitor people when they come in and when they leave, and we simply have to find a way to bring people out of the shadows, and off the cash economy, bring them, I believe, on the tax rolls, and to be able to screen them to make sure that they're not a threat to the American people, and hopefully concentrate our law enforcement resources on the true threat, which is the terrorists.

DOBBS: Senator John Cornyn, we thank you for being here.

CORNYN: Thank you, Lou. Good to be with you.

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