DOBBS: Up next here, Senators McCain and Obama refusing to defend American workers from the threat of cheap foreign labor. Not only illegal aliens, but oh, yeah, there are some folks who want about a half million new visas as well. We'll continue in one moment. Stay with us.(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Welcome back. One thing the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates agree upon is cheap foreign labor. Both presidential candidates support expanding guest worker visa programs, programs that bring in cheap foreign labor at the expense of American workers. Bill Tucker has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is no shortage of programs to import foreign workers into the American economy. It's an alphabet soup. There's the B-1, the H-1A, the H-1B, the H-1C, the H-2A, the H-2B and the H-W. Then there's the O-series, 1, 2, and 3. The P's, 1, 2, 3, 4, and the Q's, 1, 2, and 3. And the R series, R-1 and R-2.
RON HIRA, ROCHESTER INST. OF TECHNOLOGY: What's happened is you have had this sort of visa creep, you know guest worker visa creep where ever time a constituency, a lobbyist, a special interest group is interested in you know getting cheaper workers, what they do is they invent a new visa category.
TUCKER: Which is how we got the TN visa included in the NAFTA trade agreement. The Chilean and Singaporean trade agreements created the H-1, B-1 visa and then there's the E-3 visa, exclusively for Australians. That's a total of 23 guest worker visa programs and at least one outstanding question.
PAUL ALMEIDA, AFL-CIO: So what advantage does a U.S. worker you know stand in this market?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: And there is not a single study documenting the fact that we need all of these guest worker visa programs. But what we do have is eight straight months of rising unemployment and we have, Lou, a Congress ready to add more visas into this mix. Zoe Lofgren yesterday introduced a bill into the House to do what they call recapture 550,000 visas at a time when the unemployment rate in this country is 6.1 percent. They want to add another half million foreign workers into this economy.
DOBBS: Let me be as clear and emphatic as I possibly can be. This is my opinion. Your Congress is lying to you about the reason for these Visas. Your Congress is acting in absolute disregard of the national interests and the interests of working men and women in this country, and I think every one of them should be held accountable because this is duplicitous. We had a president parading around this country for years saying we need a guest worker program when we knew at the time there were 10 of them and the subsequent years we have been reporting on this, the list is now, what, 23? Twenty-three and I'm not even sure that's complete. A week going back and forth with the State Department who says Lou - the State Department says we don't know.
DOBBS: Well what this administration and what this government don't know would fill up this broadcast and many hours of programming on any network. The reason they don't know is it's inconvenient for them to let that information out. Let me be clear. This is unconscionable. This Congress and Zoe Lofgren, Nancy Pelosi should be held absolutely responsibility for what's happening. Also, the same bill that is moving through the United States Senate, I mean, folks, it's time to stop it. Either you care about this country, the American dream and fulfilling it for an entire generation of the next Americans, or you don't. This is the time to make it clear what you think. Bill, thank you very much. It's infuriating, absolutely infuriating.
Well last year, eight of the top 20 companies that requested those H1B visas were based in India. Those companies are in the business of outsourcing middle class jobs to bring in cheap labor from overseas and exploit the American worker. You can understand why they really need more of those visas. Time now for tonight's poll. Our question is, do you believe the presidential candidates' position on border security should be more important in this campaign than say, their race, religion or their gender? Yes or no. Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We'll have your results upcoming here.
And coming up next, insults and partisanship on the campaign trail. The presidential campaign, well, both campaigns focusing on gender and politics and ignoring the real issues facing the American people. Ignoring, avoiding, evading. Three radio talk show hosts here at the fair, hold their feet to the fire rally, will tell us what they think. We'll continue in one moment. Stay with us.
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