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LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
CNN -- October 4, 2004 -- PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT
Read Entire Transcript - See American Patrol Feature, Video ClipWhite House Wants Tougher Measures Against Illegal Aliens Abandoned in Congress; Another Mount St. Helens Eruption Could Be Imminent; Interview with Graydon Carter, author of "What We've Lost"
Aired October 4, 2004 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Monday, October 4. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion is Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening.
Tonight, the White House is demanding that House Republicans abandon their proposals for tough new measures against illegal aliens. The White House apparently wants Congress to remove all provisions in the new intelligence bill that would prevent illegal aliens from obtaining U.S. driver's licenses. Anti-terrorism experts say those House proposals would also help stop radical Islamist terrorists from launching more attacks in this country.
Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The House Republican leadership has offered a sweeping bill that would reform the nation's immigration system.
It would restrict the use of foreign issued consular cards, set national standards for driver's licenses, increase the number of border agents and would expedite the deportation of illegal aliens who have entered the United States in the past five years.
They're provisions that would seal off the border to terrorists and shut the door on illegal aliens.
JENKS: If any illegal aliens can enter this country, so can terrorists. We can't distinguish between the two. We can't leave the borders open for illegal aliens and close them for terrorists.
SYLVESTER: But the White House has made it clear, it wants the House Republican leadership to remove the immigration provisions from the final House 9/11 bill.
Sources say the White House in particular wants stripped the driver's license standard and the restrictions on the consular card, saying, quote, "It's not a place they want to go."
DAN STEIN, FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM: If this administration guts these provisions, it's going to demonstrate to the whole country that they're not serious when it comes to actually determining who people are and in developing the documentary structures and the efficient immigration control system to finally get this nation's borders under control.
SYLVESTER: Pro-immigration groups argue the House language goes beyond the scope of the 9/11 commission report.
JEANNE BUTTERFIELD, AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW FOUNDATION: It doesn't reform in a good way our immigration laws. It merely piles in some measures that immigration restrictionists have long had on their agenda.
SYLVESTER: But the 9/11 commission report does call on the federal government to set standards for identification documents and to implement a system to know who is coming into the country. The commission left it up to Congress to work out details.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: The 9/11 commission members are worried that the immigration provisions could derail efforts to pass the bill in the House. So, last week, they held a news conference, asking that the immigration provisions be removed as well. So far, the House Republican leadership is holding firm, intent on passing a 9/11 bill that will make the country safer -- Lou.
DOBBS: Lisa Sylvester.
Thank you very much.
All of this coming on a year in which an estimated three million illegal aliens will enter the country.
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Read Entire Transcript - See American Patrol Feature, Video Clip
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