[DEBATE] : (Fwd) CNN's Dobbs educated on immigrant rights

[Patrick Bond]

(May Day 2006: The Great American Boycott. Maybe it should be a global call?)

DOBBS: Thank you, Wolf. My next guest says he wants to thank Congressman 
James Sensenbrenner for unifying his organization. Nativo Lopez, National 
President of the Mexican-American Political Association, one of the 
organizers of today's protest, joining us tonight from Santa Anna, California.

Nativo, let me ask you, why do you oppose the Sensenbrenner legislation?

NATIVO LOPEZ, PRES. MEX-AM POL. ASSOC.: It's a racist legislation and it 
criminalize the people, and employers, workers, pastors of churches, the 
most, nastiness, racist legislation ever to see Congress and the history of 
our country.

DOBBS: And will you accept anything less than amnesty?

LOPEZ: Absolutely not. We're looking for full immediate, unconditional 
legalization for all persons currently in the United States. They've 
already paid their way, Dobbs. They paid their way more than enough, than 
anybody can expect of them, we don't need earned legalization, we need 
legalization right now of all our folks here.

Our country would be more secure with having everybody in our database, 
their photo, fingerprints, information, we would certainly know who the 12 
million are, they would be here. And May 1st, you are going to feel the 
effects of nobody going to work, nobody going to school, shopping or 
selling, because we're calling it The Great American Boycott: A Day Without 
Immigrants. Marching in the street for full, immediate, unconditional 
legalization of all working people that are here currently without documents.

DOBBS: Nativo, you're talking about feeling the impact, you're talking 
about a boycott of all illegal aliens in this country?

LOPEZ: Well first off, I refute your terminology. You don't say kike, 
patty, WOP, OK, you don't say nigger.

DOBBS: Partner, I don't even listen to that kind of language. You pollute 
the air.

LOPEZ: You're using language that's offensive to me and offensive to my people.

DOBBS: You are wrong.

LOPEZ: You pollute the air every day, Dobbs. You are absolutely wrong.

DOBBS: You have the distinction of using language that is never...

LOPEZ: That language is offensive, it's derogatory, it's denigrating, and 
don't use that terminology to me again, referring to my people.

DOBBS: ... Let me tell you what. If you're going to boycott the country on 
the 12th, what do you expect the impact to be?

LOPEZ: The 1st.

DOBBS: The 1st.

LOPEZ: Basically to send a message to Congress, send a message to America, 
send a message to you, to appreciate the labor of immigrants in the United 
States, appreciate us, the same way when you lose a loved one, and you -- 
and you try to...

DOBBS: Nativo, let me ask you something.

LOPEZ: ... recoup that love of that person with flowers, with candy, 
because you now appreciate you've lost her. And that's essentially the 
effect of a political message to Congress on May 1st. We won't go to work, 
we won't go to school, we won't be buying products, we'll be marching in 
the street for legalization.

DOBBS: What would you do, do you suppose, Nativo, you and anyone who would 
join in such a boycott -- what do you do without America? You're suggesting 
what we would do without illegal aliens, what would you do without America?

LOPEZ: America needs us, just as it needs every other working people in the 
United States. It's a basic law, a basic premise. You went to Harvard, you 
know about the laws of supply and demand of capitalism.

This is a essentially a question of supply and demand. There's a tremendous 
demand for this labor. There's an ample supply. We are facing population 
deficit, and state after state throughout our country. We're not 
reproducing sufficient workers so our economy will not grow. Therefore, we 
need to depend on immigrant labor.

DOBBS: Let me ask you this, then why should all of our -- the predominant 
amount of that illegal labor come to us from Mexico and Central America, 
rather than the billions of impoverished people around the world? Why 
shouldn't the United States be deciding who is coming into our country?

LOPEZ: Well you know that better than anybody, because you've been wailing 
against NAFTA and CAFTA and the outsourcing of jobs for so many years. 
Three million Mexican farmers were ruined by $12 billion a year subsidy for 
agriculture, to go into Mexico under NAFTA and basically gobble up all that 
land, throw these farmers off their land.

You think that the farmers are just going to stick around with a poke in 
the hole? They're going to come where there's a demand for their labor and 
they're here, and they'll continue to make great contributions to our country.

DOBBS: Nativo Lopez, an organizer -- Nativo, let me ask you just one thing 
as we sum it up. How do you say chutzpah in Spanish?

LOPEZ: I don't know. It takes a lot of brains, that's for sure.

DOBBS: You've got that right.

LOPEZ: We've got it, because we're out in the streets.

DOBBS: Have fun, we appreciate your time.

LOPEZ: Thank you.

full: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/10/ldt.01.html