Lou, They Aren't Aliens

Lou Dobbs is known in immigration circles (both hateful and not) for being a vocal critic of people crossing our southern border in search of a better life. Although he subscribes to the terms 'illegal immigration' and 'illegal aliens,' other people such as Laura Flanders know better. She also has the guts to tell him that his speech is dead wrong.

From Orcinus' discussion of Lou Dobbs' May 8th broadcast:

DOBBS: Well, I appreciate it. Thank you, Joe. Laura Flanders, let's talk about Mitt Romney at ...

LAURA FLANDERS, AIR AMERICA: I wanted to come back for a minute to the L.A. story, the last two stories. I think if Dr. King were alive today, he would be talking about what happened on L.A. on May 1st. When you talk about abuse, 240 rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas.

We've gone from legal punishment of illegal aliens to physical punishment, and it's not helped by language like yours, Lou, talking about these [marchers] as being illegal aliens...

DOBBS: Laura, Laura, Laura, that's ridiculous.

FLANDERS: They're not aliens, they're people. And the vast majority of people at these marches are utterly legal. They're not aliens, Lou. They're people, and you're dehumanizing them with that language.

That is exactly what Lou specializes in, dehumanization. It is why right-wing hate groups love to cite him (and appear on his show) in their publications to incite hatred towards the newest immigrants in our country. Due to a backlogged immigration system that does not let very many people in from the south, millions are forced to trek across parched and dangerous deserts to find jobs.

Instead of finding common ground with these immigrants, Lou conveniently forgets his own history (and many others) and chooses this absurd nativist route that helps no one. His type of dialogue only hurts all of us, whether directly from an immigrants' standpoint or collectively when it comes to the health of our nation and what America is all about.