The Nation's Hatchet Job on Lou Dobbs

Here.

Although I (apparently unlike most other liberals) think that illegal immigration is a major problem, I'm not wild about Lou Dobbs. But this story seems to me like a hatchet job. There's not a lot of evidence that Dobbs knew that the people working on his estate were illegal--they were hired by contractors. It's pretty weird to think that Dobbs has an obligation to check the immigration status of everyone who works for all the contractors--e.g. landscapers--he hires. Furthermore, just because Dobbs thinks it should be illegal to hire illegals, that doesn't mean he thinks that he ought to personally demand to see the papers of everyone who works on his property. I think it should be illegal to hire illegals...and I recently undertook this absurdly extensive renovation project on my house. One contractor we hired--the drywaller--had a couple of guys working for him who didn't speak English. Now, (given the area, the job, etc.) there's a non-negligible chance that those guys were illegal...but am I going to, like, demand to see their papers? Or have some kind of confrontation with their boss? No, I am not. I am not an a**h*le, and I don't want to make these guys' lives harder. I think there should be a law--but there isn't. And I'm not going to go all Minutemen on 'em. I think the contractors I hire should be obligated to make sure everybody working for them is in the country legally...but I think you're an a**h*le if you go up to the two Hispanic guys and demand to know their citizenship status.

Anyway, is Dobbs a hypocrite? Well, maybe...but this story doesn't prove it if he is. And, of course, even if he's a hypocrite, he might still be right about many things. I'm not wild about The Nation anyway, and this story does nothing to change my opinion....