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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Federal Agents Overwhelmed by Illegal Immigration Crisis; Interview With Duncan Hunter
Aired November 21, 2007 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Suzanne.
Tonight the federal government demonstrates it cannot enforce all our immigration laws. Federal agents in one community are simply overwhelmed by our illegal immigration crisis.
Also lawmakers finally take some action to help Americans pummeled by the mortgage crisis. But is it too little, too late?
And parents struggle to find alternatives to dangerous toys...
(AUDIO GAP)
PILGRIM: ... justice for two former border patrol agents who were given harsh prison sentences.
Presidential candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter will join us; all that, today's news, much more straight ahead tonight.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: news, debate, and opinion for Wednesday, November 21. Live from New York, sitting in for Lou Dobbs, Kitty Pilgrim.
PILGRIM: Good evening everybody.
We begin with the tightening race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The first test of voter sentiment comes in Iowa, just six weeks from tomorrow. The outcome of the Iowa caucuses could set a trend for all the primaries and as a result the campaign is turning nasty.
Bill Schneider has our report from Washington. Bill, we have some new developments today that made Iowa even more important in the presidential election campaign, didn't we?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. The development came from New Hampshire, where the secretary of state announced at his discretion the New Hampshire primary will take place on January 8th, finally the last piece of the puzzle, Tuesday, January 8th. Now that is only five days...
(AUDIO GAP)
SCHNEIDER: ... even more crucial, because they are still first but there are only five days before New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton is in a very tight race in Iowa. Mitt Romney is in an unexpectedly tight race in Iowa. If they stumble in Iowa, which both of them hope to do well in, if they stumble there they've got to come back and win New Hampshire, but they've only got five days to wage a full-fledged New Hampshire campaign.
PILGRIM: That puts a lot of pressure on. Bill, there's a new poll that indicates Republican Mike Huckabee is doing surprisingly well in Iowa. What is going on there?
SCHNEIDER: What is going on is he's only a few points behind Mitt Romney who has been the front-runner in Iowa for quite a long time. Romney spent a lot of money there. He has spent a lot of time there. And here comes Mike Huckabee who has got a very solid base among evangelical Christians, very powerful force in the Iowa caucuses, coming on, breathing down Romney's neck.
This might be good news for Rudy Giuliani, of all people, who is not doing very well in Iowa, has not spent that much time there. But he sees -- Giuliani sees Romney as his most serious competitor. And if Romney could be knocked off in Iowa by Huckabee that could be good news for Giuliani, who frankly does not really expect Huckabee to be the nominee because he doesn't have the resources to wage much of a campaign beyond Iowa.
PILGRIM: That's interesting. Bill, this campaign is really turning ugly. What are the Democratic presidential candidates saying about each other now?
SCHNEIDER: Very nasty things. Hillary Clinton was running more or less above it all as a front-runner and she was focusing on the Republicans but suddenly this week she turned her attention to Barack Obama. She criticized his lack of foreign policy experience. She actually mocked him for saying that his strongest experience in foreign relations is spending four years living overseas as a child in Southeast Asia.
She said now voters are going to have to judge whether living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one for the big, complex international challenges that are going to face the president of the United States, and then his campaign shot back and said, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld had a lot of experience in the White House and they along with Hillary Clinton led the country into the worst foreign policy disaster of the generation, so there's a lot of very angry and nasty back-and-forth. It is getting very ugly out there.
PILGRIM: Tough stuff from all quarters; thanks very much, Bill Schneider. Thanks, Bill.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates tonight is considering a startling change in U.S. military policy in Europe. Now Gates may stop all further U.S. troop withdrawals from Europe. A top general said one reason for the possible change is quote, "Russia's resurgence."
Barbara Starr reports from the Pentagon -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kitty, it should be emphasized that no decisions have been made but indeed Pentagon officials are confirming that defense...
(AUDIO GAP)
STARR: ... any further troop withdrawals out of Europe at this time.
(AUDIO GAP)
STARR: One of the reasons...
(AUDIO GAP)
STARR: ... McKiernan, the heavy (ph) in Europe, is saying quote, "we don't know what's going to happen in terms of a resurgent Russia." That's the reason he's giving for this plan for possibly keeping up to 24,000 troops in Europe that otherwise might have returned to the United States. Russia is back on the world's stage. NATO is struggling with its commitments to send troops to Afghanistan, and its other security commitments in Europe, what commanders are saying is this isn't the time for U.S. troops to start packing up and going home and disappearing out of Europe.
What are they talking about? Well, when you look at how it all lays down, what they're essentially talking about is keeping four U.S. combat brigades, combat units in Europe. Three in Germany, including two very heavy combat brigades, the type that have seen action in Iraq and keeping a parachute regiment in Italy. No decisions have been made but what this would do, Kitty, is keep a very substantial U.S. military footprint in Europe at a time when commanders are saying that is essential -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Barbara Starr. Thanks, Barbara.
New evidence today of President Vladimir Putin's aggressive policy towards the west; President Putin today accused western countries of meddling in Russian politics. Putin blasted his political opponents just days before parliamentary elections. Putin said his critics are Jackals who are fed by foreign governments.
And turning to the war in Iraq, insurgents killed another one of our troops. The soldier died in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad; 32 of our troops have been killed in Iraq so far this month; 3,876 of our troops have been killed since this war began; 28,530 troops wounded; 12,764 seriously.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today declared that she hopes to reach a Middle East peace deal before President Bush leaves office. Rice said next week's peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, is a quote, "very big step forward." The United States will host Israeli and Palestinian officials, and diplomats from more than 40 other countries.
The White House tonight strongly defending President Bush's conduct during the CIA leak scandal. The White House saying the president would never ask anyone to knowingly pass on false information. Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan says President Bush was involved in efforts to mislead the public about the leak.
Jessica Yellin reports -- Jessica.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kitty, I spoke to the publisher, and he's dialing it back a bit. He says in the rest of the book, McClellan makes it clear that at no point did the president tell him to lie about this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
YELLIN (voice-over): During the frenzy surrounding the leak of a CIA operative's name, then White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan announced that Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby had nothing to do with it.
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They're important members of our White House team and that's why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved.
YELLIN: But in an upcoming book McClellan admits there was one problem, it was not true. "I unknowingly passed along false information" and he makes this accusation. That "five of the highest- ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so, among them, the president himself."
That is raising questions about what Mr. Bush knew and in what way he was involved. The White House issued a swift response. "The president has not and would not ask anyone to knowingly pass on false information." And the word "knowingly" could be key. Earlier this year, McClellan told CNN "Mr. Bush was misled just like he was."
MCCLELLAN: I said what I believed to be true at the time, it was also what the president believed to be true at the time, based on assurances that we were both given.
YELLIN: The outed CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson pounced on the news, calling it shocking, saying it adds support to her civil case. But Former Chief of Staff Andy Card says there must be more to the story. Though he hedged on his own role in the matter telling CNN, "I cannot imagine that I would have knowingly asked Scott McClellan to say something that is a falsehood."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YELLIN: When I spoke to Andy Card he also suggested he would like McClellan to give the full story of what happened, but McClellan isn't talking and his publisher says they kept that excerpt short deliberately. The book comes out next April -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Jessica Yellin reporting from the White House.
Still to come, a major setback for efforts to enforce our immigration laws and Bill Tucker will have the report -- Bill. BILL TUCKER CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Kitty to enforce the law you need the resources and those resources are lacking in ICE. We'll have the story coming up -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks Bill.
Lawmakers demand justice for imprisoned border patrol agents Ramos and Compean. Well one of those lawmakers, Congressman Duncan Hunter will join us.
And members of Congress say they will help middle class Americans reeling from the mortgage crisis. Will they really? We'll have a special report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Osvaldo Aldrete Davila appeared before a federal judge today. He is the illegal alien drug smuggler who was shot by former border patrol agents Ramos and Compean. He testified against the two agents in return for immunity. Aldrete Davila waived arraignment, didn't enter a plea. And a hearing could determine bail, which was scheduled for next Thursday.
Ramos and Compean are serving lengthy terms for shooting Aldrete Davila and he was the main witness against them. Now he is charged with trafficking marijuana, several months after he was shot by Ramos and Compean, and months before he testified at their trial. This arrest has renewed calls for Ramos and Compean's immediate release from prison. Congressman Duncan Hunter is leading the effort. He will join me later in the broadcast.
The federal government's crackdown on illegal aliens appears to be faltering. Immigration and customs enforcement officials have notified north Texas cities that they will no longer detain most of the illegal aliens arrested in the region.
As Bill Tucker reports, just being in the country illegally isn't enough to get federal officials to take action.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER (voice-over): The City Council in Irving, Texas, tried to toughen enforcement of immigration laws but found the rules have changed. Immigration and customs enforcement has changed the rules for cities and towns such as Irving that participate in its criminal alien program. No longer will unlawful presence be enough to get an illegal alien deported.
They will have to be guilty of something more than a class C misdemeanor, such as some assaults, minor theft, or traffic violation.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (INAUDIBLE)
TUCKER: Irving's participation in the ICE program grabbed national headlines. That in turn created interest from other communities who demanded that their police participate in the program. MAYOR HERBERT GEARS, IRVING, TEXAS: Irving shows a lack of resources and probably shows that we underestimate what it means to enforce the current laws. It's confusing to us or the federal government to implement a policy that essentially says, you know, we will enforce the law you know in most cases or half of the cases, but we won't otherwise.
TUCKER: With one office responsible for 128 counties in Texas, all of Oklahoma, working with 410 law enforcement agencies, it didn't take long to overwhelm ICE. A spokesman for ICE insists the agency is not backing down from enforcing immigration law.
Quote, "Like any law enforcement agency, ICE must prioritize its personnel and resources based on those aliens who represent the greatest threat to national security or public safety."
As a matter of policy, ICE won't say how many agents it has assigned to any office but it points to the number of illegal aliens taken into custody in Dallas from May through September as evidence that it hasn't backed off. Those numbers, though, could be expected to fall under the new guidelines. The rule change pleases advocates for illegal aliens.
CARLOS QUINTANILLA, ACTION AMERICA: What happened with the new memorandum from ICE, it sends a message that they recognize that they made a mistake, and that to deport individuals simply for a broken light or for a stop sign or traffic-related offenses or anything less than a class C misdemeanor, was something that needed to be corrected.
TUCKER: But it was the change that was sent without warning by e-mail from the ICE office in Dallas to the city of Irving.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: Now the mayor calls the criminal alien program very successful, and says the city will continue to work with ICE under the new guidelines and he notes that since using the program, the crime rate in Irving has fallen by 21 percent. He also says the number of people referred to ICE he expects will be cut by about half under these new guidelines so they won't be turning over nearly as many people and presumably ICE won't be as overwhelmed.
PILGRIM: ICE is fabulously overwhelmed. They really can't cope. They have a lot of things to cover in their job description.
TUCKER: Immigration is only one part of what they do. I mean there's immigration. There is customs enforcement. They run child predator stings. They do a number of things. There is about 5,000 agents in the country versus anywhere between 12 and 20 million illegal aliens so on a routine daily basis, these are people who are just by sheer numbers overwhelmed by the task at hand.
PILGRIM: It is absolutely true. Thanks very much, Bill Tucker. Thanks, Bill.
San Francisco has approved a plan to issue ID cards to city residents, including illegal aliens. The city's plan will start next year. It's modeled after a program that began last summer in New Haven, Connecticut. The ID card plan bolsters San Francisco's position as a leading sanctuary city. Its sanctuary policies prohibit city employees and police from asking anyone about their immigration status.
We do have time now for some of your thoughts and we love hearing from you, and let's go to the first. Joan in Arizona, "Since our elected officials are not upholding our immigration laws, do we not have the right and duty to charge them with breaking these laws?"
Barb in Texas wrote to us "I'm having trouble understanding the difference between undocumented immigrant and illegal immigrant. Either way, they are breaking U.S. laws. Send them back and have them come over the legal way."
Ken in California writes to Lou, "Congrats on the driver's license victory. You were the spearhead and it worked." So on behalf of Lou, thank you very much.
And we'll have more of your e-mails a little bit later in the broadcast. Each of you whose e-mail is read here receives a copy of Lou's new book "Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit."
More consequences tonight resulting from American companies outsourcing production to communist China; computer hard drives manufactured in China were shipped containing a computer virus. Now this virus could take personal information and send it to a third party. The drives were made in China for Seagate Technologies. It's a U.S. company. Seagate said about 1,800 units were infected. Some of those drives might have made it to the United States.
The company said in a statement, "All products leaving the factory are now cleared of the virus." Now this isn't the first time infected computer products have been shipped from China. Last year a number of Apple iPods also made in China were shipped with a virus.
And that does bring to us our poll question tonight. This holiday season, will you make an effort to buy products that were not made in China? Yes or no? Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We'll bring you the results later in the broadcast.
Coming up, finding a way to survive the mortgage crisis. The nation's mayors look for solutions. We'll have a report.
More on the war of words between the Clinton and Obama camps; we'll have a special report. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: America's mayors will meet next week in Detroit to battle the growing mortgage crisis. The U.S. Conference of Mayors' Forum is expected to come up with local strategies to help hundreds of thousands of homeowners who can't keep up with rising mortgage rates. Many of them are facing foreclosure. Help is already on the way for distressed California homeowners. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's office has worked out a deal with four mortgage lenders to keep mortgage rates low for some borrowers with financial difficulties. About half a million California residents hold sub prime mortgages that will cost more over the next two years.
Nationwide banks are expected to foreclose on more than two million homes in the next year and a half. Those homeowners should not expect much help from the federal government.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM (voice-over): Millions of Americans duped into signing on the dotted line when they should have been running for the door. Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, backing a bill to protect consumers from mortgage abuses. Lawmakers are walking a tightrope of competing interests of both lenders and consumers. Mortgage industry groups have raised strong objections to the new rules, saying the rules will make homes out of reach for many Americans. Yet some consumer groups say protections have been watered down.
REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: There will be a bill, which I must say will probably leave all parties in interest a little bit unhappy. I'm not pleased with that but I think given the competing interest here, that is the best that we can do.
PILGRIM: One of the main abuses that exist today is a fee structure that lets brokers take premiums from banks and mortgage companies for pushing consumers into higher interest rate loans.
JOHN TAYLOR, NATL CMNTY. REINVESTMENT COAL: It shouldn't be legal. It's a way of giving kickbacks to people to convince, you know, unsuspecting borrowers to pay more for their house through the mortgage process.
PILGRIM: The bill is seen as a key first consumer protection effort in an epidemic of mortgage defaults that is expected to leave millions of middle class Americans without homes in the coming year.
REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D), NEW YORK: With this bill we take the first step towards reforms for the future. The bill would establish minimum standards for home loans and expand certain limits on high cost mortgages. It also would prohibit brokers from steering consumer's mortgages they are unlikely to be able to repay.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: A House committee has passed an anti-predatory lending bill that will protect people in the future but for now millions are on the brink of losing their homes with little clear relief spelled out for them in Washington.
Oil prices fell a bit today after hitting $99 early in the day. Prices closed at 97. That drop may be temporary. Experts say the climb towards 100 a barrel isn't over. And the weekly report from the Energy Information Administration say crude stocks fell by more than a million barrels last week. A gain was expected there.
Coming up, Senators Clinton and Obama on the attack; they are blasting each other. The rhetoric escalates. We'll have a report on that.
And a Republican dark horse is showing some strength in the latest polls. We'll tell you who is moving up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: The primary calendar for the presidential primaries is finally set. The Michigan Supreme Court decided today to let the state go forward with the January 15th primary, and a few hours later, New Hampshire's secretary of state set January 8th for the nation's first primary, but the first votes in the presidential candidates will be cast in the Iowa caucuses, and that is just six weeks from Thanksgiving Day.
A new poll among Republican voters in Iowa indicates that Mike Huckabee with 24 percent support is closing in on Mitt Romney, who has 28 percent. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson follows with 15 percent; 13 percent favor former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; 6 percent Senator John McCain. The poll had a margin of error plus or minus five percentage points.
On the day before Thanksgiving, Republican Mitt Romney and Democrats Joe Biden and Chris Dodd spent part of the day with the underprivileged, handing out lunches and participating in food drives. Senator Hillary Clinton delivered food at a shelter in Des Moines last night. She's spending Thanksgiving at home in New York. Clinton announced today that she will not cross the picket lines for the CBS Democratic presidential debate on December 10th, if the news writers are still on strike. Most of the other candidates quickly followed suit.
Senator Barack Obama also packed and loaded food for the needy today. He criticized Senator Clinton's health care plan, saying it lacked specifics on enforcement and who will pay for it. As Dan Lothian reports, the attack is part of a bitter feud between the two Democratic presidential front-runners.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Helping to prepare meal boxes for the needy, Senator Barack Obama worked the assembly line at a food pantry in Manchester, New Hampshire.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thanksgiving is a time where we're grateful for what we have but we also are thinking about those who don't have it.
LOTHIAN: That was all he wanted to talk about putting down the gloves and picking up cans of beans, one day after sparring with Hillary Clinton over foreign policy experience and her comment that she'd met with many world leaders.
OBAMA: I was wondering which world leader told her that we needed to invade Iraq.
LOTHIAN: This surge and heated exchanges between the top two Democratic candidates began earlier in the week when Obama said this.
OBAMA: Probably the strongest experience that I have in foreign relations is the fact that I spent four years living overseas when I was a child in Asia, in Southeast Asia.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And with all due respect, I don't think living in a foreign country between the ages of 6 and 10 is foreign policy experience.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Obama tried to clarify his point.
OBAMA: It gives me some judgment and perspective around what other people think about America.
LOTHIAN: For much of this race, Hillary Clinton had been directing her harshest criticism against President Bush, and her republican rivals, campaigning with a sense of inevitability that she'll be the democratic nominee. Here's an ad released on Tuesday in the granite state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here they go again, the same old republican attack machine is back.
LOTHIAN: But the tone of this race now seems to be changing, as Clinton's closest democratic rival inches up or ahead, in the first two states that matter, Iowa and New Hampshire. The question is, how will voters here take to this more stepped up war of words?
SCOTT SPRADLING, WMUR POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Negative attacks work everywhere you go, but here in New Hampshire, it's not received as well as it might be in other states, where you really see the fisticuffs.
LOTHIAN: But that attack here in New Hampshire could be risky and could potentially backfire, in a state where voters expect candidates to point out their differences without getting ugly. Dan Lothian, CNN, Manchester, New Hampshire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Barack Obama's increasingly bitter attacks on Hillary Clinton are a far cry from the early days of his campaign. Shortly after he declared his candidacy for president last February, the Illinois senator told the crowd in Las Vegas that "We've got to get beyond the small politics, the slash and burn politics that have become the custom in Washington."
Here's a programming reminder, the next presidential debate, where you, the viewer, ask all the questions, is just around the corner. CNN will host the next You Tube debate with the republican presidential candidates, that's next Wednesday, November 28th.
And coming up, a leader in the fight to have former border patrol agents Ramos and Compean freed from prison, Congressman Duncan Hunter will join me.
Also, consumers this is holiday season turn their backs on toys made in communist China. We'll have a special report on that. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) * PILGRIM: The illegal alien drug smuggler who is at the center of the Ramos and Compean case remains in federal custody tonight. Osvaldo Aldrete Davila is under indictment for trafficking in marijuana. At the time, he was being protected by the U.S. attorney's office. He was granted immunity in return for his testimony against the two former Border Patrol agents. Ramos and Compean were convicted of shooting Aldrete Davila during a pursuit, and they are serving lengthy sentences in federal prison.
Congressman Duncan Hunter is leading the fight to have the two former agents freed from prison and their records cleared. And he joins me now.
Thank you very much, sir, for joining us.
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: Great to be with you, Kitty.
PILGRIM: What is your reaction to the arrest of Davila?
HUNTER: Well, you know, this was a long time coming, because this event happened, the shooting happened in 2005, early 2005. The U.S. attorney solicited Davila to come back across the border, testify, and he was a key witness. He was the star witness in the trial, because it was his testimony that he said he was unarmed when Ramos shot him. Ramos and Compean said he had a gun as he ran back across the Rio Grande River.
And this happened in 2005. After he had turned state's evidence, and while they were waiting for the trial to begin, he decided he had some time on his hands in October of 2005, and he ran another massive load of drugs across the border.
And the damning thing about this is, is that the U.S. attorney had that information, because the DEA had an investigation. I've seen it. I've seen the report. The people who received the loaded drugs identified the drug dealer as the guy who had driven this second load of drugs across, and yet the U.S. attorney didn't feel it was necessary to tell the jury, who ended up believing the drug dealer, when he raised his right hand and said I'm going to tell only the truth. The U.S. attorney didn't feel it was necessary to tell that jury that the guy they were believing had just run a second load of drugs shortly before he appeared on the witness stand.
That certainly is a severe injustice, and at this point, I sent a hand-delivered letter to the president the other day, talking... PILGRIM: We have a clip of this, sir. Let me just read it for our viewers.
HUNTER: Sure.
PILGRIM: So they can see.
"Mr. President, if ever a case merited a presidential pardon, this is the one. The government asserted that Aldrete was giving honest testimony even when the U.S. knew he was back in the drug- running business."
And this, as you point out, was not -- the jury was not allowed to know this information. Do you think that a pardon is possible at this point?
HUNTER: I would hope it is. I talked to Josh Bolten, to the president's chief of staff, after I sent the letter over. He assured me he would show it to the president. And also, I sent the Drug Enforcement Agency report that they did in October of 2005 that connected this guy to this second load.
So the point was, the U.S. attorney had that in his hands, even as he was telling the jury that this guy was believable. And you know, that's the heart of the justice system, being able to confront your accusers and ask them and cross-examine them about their credibility. And certainly a second felony being committed just before the testimony certainly goes to his credibility.
I think those juries, or that jury, if it had had that information, would have taken precisely 20 seconds to find Compean and Ramos not guilty. So they've done almost 10 months in prison now. Let's get them back for Thanksgiving.
PILGRIM: Absolutely. Let's just read what the U.S. attorney of the Western Texas District, Johnny Sutton, made a statement, and the statement is -- "Just as Aldrete's alleged illegal conduct did not excuse the crimes committed by Compean and Ramos, likewise, their crimes will not be excused by his. Compean and Ramos had their day in court and received justice in accordance with well-established laws. And now, Aldrete will have his day in court, and my office will work tirelessly to ensure that justice is done."
The fact that he says that he'll work to do justice now doesn't really...
HUNTER: Well, yes. Kitty, he left out one important part. He knew that this drug dealer had just committed a second felony just before he put the drug dealer on the stand, and asserted to the jury that the drug dealer's testimony was believable, that this guy was credible, this guy was honest, and the guy had just committed a second felony.
And you know, when you're given immunity by the U.S. attorney after you've committed a felony, you have to promise to the U.S. attorney you will never run drugs again. So he held his hand up and said, absolutely, you got my word on it, I'll never run drugs again. And he said incidentally, I'll also testify truthfully that Compean and Ramos shot me when I was unarmed.
Now, it turns out that he lied about the first part of that pledge, which was that he would never run drugs again, and Johnny Sutton, the U.S. attorney, incredibly, did not convey that to the jury. They didn't give the defense attorney the chance to talk about that in front of the jury.
And you know, if he would have said, OK, we want to run that to ground, let's say we want to investigate the drug dealer for the second run -- they should have put off the trial of Compean and Ramos. Instead, he ramrodded that trial through, got the convention, sent them to prison, and now he says now I think I'll look at this guy again.
PILGRIM: That's unbelievable. You know, also, the timing of Davila's arrest, it's three weeks before the Ramos and Compean appeal court, appellate court hearing. Do you see any significance in the timing?
HUNTER: Well, the timing, I do see significance in the fact that they had him dead to rights the second time back in October of 2005, and he was -- and the same -- the guy who ran the drugs, and was identified as having delivered the second massive load, then walked into the courtroom, obviously in the custody of the U.S. attorney, and testified against the Border Patrol agents.
They had him then, and they had this evidence, which was very conclusive in my estimation -- I read the report -- linking him to this second massive load of drugs. So they had him. Why did they wait for two years to now say, OK, we're going to take a second look at the drug dealer? Very unusual.
But in the least, these guys have done 10 years (sic) in prison. Ramos has been beaten up in the prison by drug dealers. They ought to let him out, send them back to their families for Thanksgiving.
PILGRIM: Well, we applaud your efforts in this case. We very much appreciate it. Congressman Duncan Hunter. And sir, we'd also like to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. We understand your son, Duncan Jr., is home from Afghanistan, and we wish you the absolute best holiday ever.
HUNTER: Oh, thank you so much, Kitty. And everybody who is wearing the uniform out there and their families, have a great Thanksgiving.
PILGRIM: Thank you.
Coming up, staying away from toys made in communist China, consumers may not have a lot of choice, we'll have a special report on that.
Also, the political turkeys of the year, our very own Bill Schneider will be here with his picks for that. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: The Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced recalls of another 12 dangerous products. Eleven of those products were manufactured in communist China. Nine of those products were recalled for high levels of lead, eight were children's products. You can find details of the recalls at the Consumer Commission's website.
Parents are absolutely outraged and confused by all the toy recalls. Toy brands make 50 percent of their sales in the holiday period. It's just beginning, and as Christine Romans reports, sales could be much slower this year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Will Americans spend their hard-earned money this season on toys made in China?
ALAN KORN, SAFETY EXPERT: I think they're going to be more cautious in the toy aisle.
ROMANS: Alan Korn is a safety expert who found five recalled toys in his own home.
KORN: When you have iconic brands, Barbie, Elmo, Dora the Explorer, now you're hitting home.
ROMANS: Tens of millions of Chinese-made toys were recalled this year for lead paint, dangerous magnets or design flaws. Toy brands assured the public their imported toys are now safe. But a recent poll found that nine out of ten Americans are aware of the lead- tainted product recalls. 70 percent are now checking labels. More than a third vow to buy fewer toys this is season and 30 percent say they will not buy toys made in China.
DON MAYS, CONSUMERS UNION: The people have in fact lost confidence in the marketplace and it's very unfortunate, because today you can't even tell some of the major brands of toys out there.
ROMANS: Don Mays says toy brands, manufacturers and regulators have a lot more work to do. The Consumer's Union tested toys still on store shelves and found lead in dishware, jewelry, Elmer's glue stick caps, vinyl backpacks and children's tea sets. Elmer says tests by independent labs show far less lead than reported by Consumer's Union.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aqua Dots.
ROMANS: This hot toy heavily promoted last month as a best seller for Christmas contains a chemical that metabolizes to the date rape drug.
Consumers frankly have little choice. At least 80 percent of imported toys are made in China, $22.3 billion of toys last year sold in the U.S. and today importers are ordering more from China, despite the safety crisis. High-end retailer FAO Schwartz offers toys from Germany, Denmark and around the world and sorts toys by country of origin on its website. But most retailers like Toys "R" Us are not setting aside shelf space for domestic toys.
For shoppers staying away from toys made in China, a Toys "R" Us spokeswoman says customers can ask a manager for a list of toys made in America but some retail experts predict strong sales of books and videos instead of toys and Don Mays of Consumer's Union, he predicts a good year for puppies. Christine Romans, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Well, are toys safe to buy? I talked to three consumer experts about that vital concern and first, I asked Ed Mierzwinski with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group if parents should assume that toys on the store shelves are safe.
ED MIERZWINSKI, U.S. PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP: Absolutely not. Parents should never assume that toys are necessarily safe. Manufacturers are required to meet the terms of the safety laws, but no government agency tests toys before they're put on the shelves and guarantees that the manufacturers met the letter of the law, and as we've seen with the millions of recall this is year, they don't always comply with the law.
PILGRIM: Shouldn't government be doing more? I mean we've seen Nancy Nord, the acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission saying they just simply cannot keep up with the testing. Shouldn't the government be doing more? Shouldn't there be a better system in place?
MIERZWINSKI: Absolutely, the government should be doing more. The government needs more money. It needs more resources to hold companies accountable when they break the law, but ultimately, it needs to punish companies that don't do a good job. But I think the companies have failed us. They've stretched their supply chains all the way to China, and the safety links have broken. The government is afraid to go after the companies. Actually, to say is another way, these companies aren't afraid of the government, but they should be.
PILGRIM: Lori, what do you think about government oversight?
LORI WALLACH, PUBLIC CITIZEN TRADE WATCH: We've set up a situation with our trade agreements where we promote the relocation of the production of the toys our kids are going to play with, overseas, to venues, where there's no safety oversight, and then we don't inspect the toys to make sure they are safe when they come back. It's the government's fault in both instances, and it requires changes to our trade policy, and changes to our inspection policies, both for domestic and overseas made toys.
PILGRIM: Let me get to a couple of consumer tips, and Urvashi, I turn to you for that. Let's take a look at some of the suggestions that your organization, you're a senior scientist and a policy analyst at "Consumer Reports" and let's look at some of these tips. Test toys for lead, watch out for magnets, avoid dollar stores, which is very interesting, don't buy metal jewelry, and stay informed.
URVASHI RANGAN, CONSUMER REPORTS: Yeah, I think a lot of people may avoid dollar stores and no-name brands all together. A lot of people may also look for the very small pieces in toys, especially if you have small children, toddlers who tend to mouth a lot of the toys. That's something that a lot of parents are vigilant about, but what parents may not know is that you can actually test these toys at home. If you've got painted plastic toys, if you have painted metal toys, there are kits on the market that are reliable, and that you can use to test for lead at home.
PILGRIM: The fact that a toy is on a store shelf, does that mean it's safe or does not mean it's safe? Can you make a decision as you walk into a store now as a consumer?
RANGAN: It's really difficult to make that decision, actually. There's a couple of lines of defense. First of all, plastic toys that are imported that are painted, you may want to avoid them, because we don't know whether there's lead on them or not and we're finding more and more of those toys do contain lead.
PILGRIM: That sounds like pretty much every single toy that's on the store shelves. Lori, some thoughts on this about the consumer and how they can do something about this?
WALLACH: Well actually, until we change our trade agreements and laws, consumers need to look at the labels and that wouldn't be a bad idea afterward. If it's made in the U.S., the probability that at least, because the company would be held liable if they hurt your kid, that they'll be following the rules is higher than goods made overseas, where you can't sue the company so easily.
That said, the trick basically is, go online, Google for nontoxic American made. You'll get a whole string of toys popping up. Some you can get online, some would be a list of toys you can get in your local toy stores, because a lot of producers in the U.S. and some European producers have realized that parents really want safe, nontoxic toys and they're actually doing the production and testing in-house. You can find different samples of toys that way.
PILGRIM: We've seen the market shift back quickly, Ed, any last thoughts for our viewers out there?
MIERZWINSKI: Well I agree with what's been said. Toysafety.net has a website with tips for parents. I would also encourage parents could-to-call Congress, call them today, tell them they don't want any lead in their toys and want a stronger CPSC to do the job.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much. Ed Mierzwinski, Urvashi Rangan, and Lori Wallach, thank you all for being here.
RANGAN: Thank you.
WALLACH: Thank you.
MIERZWINSKI: Thank you, Kitty. PILGRIM: A reminder now to vote in tonight's poll. This holiday season will you make an effort to buy products that were not made in China? Yes or no? Cast your votes at loudobbs.com.
Still ahead, the results of our poll, more of your thoughts, the biggest political turkeys of the year. Stay with us for that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: It is time to present you with this year's political turkeys and it seems many politicians tripped over themselves to make Bill Schneider's annual list.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How do you become one of our political turkeys of the year? By doing something foolish, like, say turkey number five, John Edwards, who spent $400 on a haircut.
JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can come from nothing to spending $400 on a haircut. There are great opportunities. So embarrassing, by the way.
SCHNEIDER: Yes, it was.
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've had a Congress that spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop.
SCHNEIDER: How about turkey number four, that fake FEMA news conference during the California wildfires.
HARVEY JOHNSON, FEMA: I'll be glad to take some of your questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?
JOHNSON: I'm very happy with FEMA's response so far, thank you.
SCHNEIDER: Thanks for asking. Not necessary. The person asking the question, a FEMA employee. Turkey number three, the attorney general suffers an amazing memory lapse when asked about the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys.
ALBERTO GONZALES, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't recall having specific questions. I don't recall such a conversation. Senator, I don't recall that occurring again.
SCHNEIDER: Exasperated republicans finally gave up on him.
SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: And I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation.
SCHNEIDER: Done. Turkey number two, Larry Craig pleads guilty, pays a fine and agrees to step down if the court denies his appeal.
SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: Therefore it is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the senate effective September 30th.
SCHNEIDER: Not done. Even though the court denied his appeal. Turkey number one, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer promotes a plan to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens.
GOV. ELIOT SPITZER (D), NEW YORK: Over the last two months, I've been advancing a proposal I believe would improve the safety and security of people of my state.
SCHNEIDER: The plan meets with overwhelming public opposition, enough to trip up a presidential contender.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not say that it should be done but I certainly recognize what Governor Spitzer is trying to do.
SCHNEIDER: Governor Spitzer's response? Oh, nevermind.
SPITZER: I have concluded that New York State cannot successfully address this problem on its own. I am announcing today I am withdrawing my proposal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: Now it's time to ask my annual Thanksgiving question. What three national disasters would happen if you drop the Thanksgiving platter? The answer? The downfall of turkey, the break- up of China, and the overthrow of Greece. So be careful out there. Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
PILGRIM: Time for the poll, 98 percent of you say that you will make an effort this holiday season to buy products that were not made in China. We do have time for some of your thoughts.
Ellen in Virginia wrote to us. "Before China started making toys sold in the United States, the U.S. made the toys that are now classified as "classics." I just bought Simon and Masterpiece Games. The Grinch cannot spoil Christmas in the United States."
Dan in Massachusetts, "I think it's about time that Americans boycott all good made in China. CHEAP is not in the best interest of the American people."
Donna in California wrote, "Just finished my Christmas shopping. Did not buy one thing made in China! The kids got U.S. Savings Bonds and coloring books printed in the USA. Restaurant Gift Certificates are loved by adults. Not only am I a political Independent, this Christmas I went independent from China!"
And Walter in North Carolina wrote, "Mr. Dobbs, you are selling yourself and our country short by not running for President. We need someone in office who cares about our country. Like YOU for example? You're the only one who can get this country back on track!"
Send us your thoughts at LouDobbs.com. Each of you whose email is read here receives a copy of Lou's new book, "Independents Day, Awakening the American Spirit."
Thanks for being with us tonight. For all of us here, thanks for watching. Have a happy Thanksgiving and good night from New York.
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