Transcript: “Amnesty” for “Illegals”
March 30, 2006 – 5:09 pmOn Your World today with David Asman sitting in for Neil Cavuto.
Asman: This is a Fox News Alert, President Bush in Cancun, Mexico, meeting with Mexico’s President Vincente Fox as we speak. We’re expecting videotape and possible comments from that meeting a little later in this hour. As soon as we see it, you’re going to see it, right here on Fox.
Well, it’s expected to be a very touchy meeting. The issue: Illegal aliens from Mexico pouring over the border on a daily basis, sure to be high on the agenda. Welcome everybody, I’m David Asman in for Neil Cavuto, this is Your World.
One area on immigration reform that both Bush and Mexican President Fox do see eye to eye on is the guest worker program. Critics say that amounts to basically amnesty to illegals. So is that fair to legal immigrants who played by the rules to get into this country? No way says Claudia Spencer, a Mexican immigrant who became a legal citizen of the U.S. She joins us now from San Diego. But Maria Elena Salianas, news anchor for Univision disagrees. She is also the author of I Am My Father’s Daughter: Living a Life Without Secrets. Thanks to you both.
Claudia, first to you. Now, you immigrated legally from Mexico, you went through the whole process. Is the guest worker program fair to those people who came here legally?
Spencer: It is not fair at all. But most of all it is not fair to people who were born in this country.
Asman: Why not?
Spencer: It is not fair because people come here illegally are breaking the laws. And nobody that breaks the law deserves to be in this country and be granted with amnesty.
Asman: Sounds very simple, clear, to the point Maria Elena.
Salinas: Well, I can tell you one thing, I was born in this country, I am an American citizen. I do think it’s fair, I do not think it’s not fair. As a matter of fact, my father was an undocumented immigrant and I’d hate to categorize him as a criminal. I believe that undocumented immigrants…
Asman: But he was breaking the law Maria Elena.
Salinas: I don’t like to call them illegal aliens, I like to call them undocumented immigrants, have a lot to contribute to this country. They have been contributing to this country for decades from all over the world, not only the ones that have come in the recent years from Mexico and other Latin American countries. They add to our economy. They contribute at least $22 billion a year to our economy. The do the jobs that American citizens just do not want to accept.
Asman: But Maria Elena, bottom line is… Hold on a second ladies. Maria Elena, if you’re illegal, you are, by definition, breaking the law, are you not?
Spencer: Exactly. You are illegal.
Salinas: Not necessarily.
Spencer: You are breaking the law.
Salinas: There’s a lot of people who jaywalk and are breaking the law. I don’t think any human being can be considered illegal. A person who does not have documents, who is not a citizen or resident, a legal resident, is an undocumented immigrant.
Asman: Claudia?
Salinas: And this is a reality of this society. It has been for many years.
{crosstalk}
Asman: Hold on a second, Maria Elena. Go ahead Claudia.
Spencer: Then if you think these people are not breaking the laws, why do you think the laws were made? Just to laugh at them? There is no reason to break the law.
Salinas: No Claudia, I am sure, I’m sure that there’s law abiding citizens, there’s law abiding legal immigrants, as I’m sure you are. And there are law abiding undocumented immigrants who are here only to work.
{crosstalk}
Asman: Go ahead Claudia.
{crosstalk}
Spencer: There is no reason to come to another country and invade it just because we are hungry. Because we need to work. I was work. You were born here. I was born in Mexico. I was born in a very poor, a very poor environment. I was living in a very, very poor house made of cardboard. And you know what? My father worked so hard in Mexico and I went to college. I am an architect today as well as my siblings.
Asman: God bless you Claudia. Maria Elena, that’s testimony.
Salinas: I come from a poor family, and we didn’t live in a cardboard house, but we did live in a house that had a lot of cockroaches unfortunately. So, my father also worked very, very hard to be able to support three daughters and a wife. And I must say that two sisters and I have been very productive citizens of this country. We have contributed very much…
Spencer: Okay Maria Elena… let me tell you…
{crosstalk}
Salinas: Not only with the taxes that we pay, but to culturally, we’ve contributed to this country.
{crosstalk}
Asman: Claudia, go ahead. Hold on Maria Elena. Go ahead Claudia.
{crosstalk}
Spencer: Maria Elena, the issue here…
Salinas: Yes Claudia.
Spencer: is that people are breaking the laws. There is no reason to break the laws. No reason. If people are hungry they should…
{crosstalk}
Asman: Hold on Maria Elena, let her make her point Maria Elena. Go ahead Claudia.
Spencer: You know what? The United States doesn’t have to pay for the consequences of poorness in Mexico. You know? There is no reason. The United States …
Salinas: Or any other part of the world too.
Spencer: Yes. So, if people want to come to this country, they are very welcome to come. But they should have permission to enter the country before they get here. Be sure…
{crosstalk}
Salinas: I agree with you…
Spencer: Okay.
{crosstalk}
Salinas: A guest worker program that allows the legal means to allow some of these workers to get in. You have to deal with the necessity in this country for a workforce. And you also have to deal with the ones that are already here.
Asman: Ladies, we have to leave it there. Maria Elena Salinas, of course you did great, we’ve seen you on television before. But Claudia Spencer you also did great. I guess this is your premiere on television. Thank you very much.
Maria Elena kept interrupting Claudia Spencer and didn’t seem to want to let her get her point across.
I think that the most important quote here was from Claudia Spencer:
“The United States doesn’t have to pay for the consequences of poorness in Mexico.”
John Hawkins busts illegal alien myths here* and Michelle Malkin documents the undocumented here.
* fixed link
well I respect all and every opinion, but this world was made
for all of us and not just for the USA this country is powerful
cause of the hard working people that came here before us
This nation in other words is made out of pure immigrants and
why are we judging those that only come to work, and nothing
else. We should look at the real criminals and leave this people
alone. Look in other words put all these people together those
that cant have a voice and work and leave all that money behind why doesnt the gov say anything about that. thanks
kip floyd
Claudia Garcia Spencer is a vice chair for an organization called You Don’t Speak for Me, which purports to speak for the “silent majority” of American Hispanics who oppose illegal immigration. This organization is now running half-page ads in the North County Times (San Diego County), featuring a photo of Ms. Garcia Spencer along with copy that reads “… 85% of Hispanics are against increased immigration of ANY kind [my caps], and 57% want immigration reduced.”
According to the ad, the source of these statistics is a poll sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), an organization that distinguishes between native-born Americans and immigrants, often without regard for immigrants’ legal status. For example, a report on the CIS website states that immigration—all immigration–adversely affects job prospects for native-born Americans.
The poll cited in the You Don’t Speak for Me ad is available on the CIS website, and the allegedly neutral questions are fully loaded. One question reads: “There are currently 37 million legal and illegal immigrants living in the United States and 1.5 million new legal and illegal immigrants settle in the country each year, not including those allowed in on a long term temporary basis. Putting aside the legal status for a moment, do you think the number of immigrants entering is: (a) too high, (b) too low, or (c) about right?”
The current You Don’t Speak for Me ads were paid for by the You Don’t Speak for Me Coalition and by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an organization with ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a documented white supremacist group.
But the plot further thickens. Ms. Garcia Spencer entered the US legally as a mail order bride. (She advertised for American husband in a magazine.) The man she chose, Mike Spencer, founded the Vista Citizens’ Brigade, a group that works alongside the San Diego Minutemen (SDMM), and SDMM’s “antics” are well documented on a website called “Minutemen Unvarnished” (www.minutemenunvarnished.com). If the pro-immigrant activists don’t speak for her, is it possibly because her husband does?