zephyrr
03-21 12:35 PM
Yes, there is a certain amount of risk depending on the company you work for. If you work for a Fortune 10 which has a 100% track record wit 140s, your risk is mitigated.
I agree that one should probably do it for compelling reasons.
I think relevent part here is Q 1.
Question 1. How should service centers or district offices process unapproved I-140
petitions that were concurrently filed with I-485 applications that have been pending
180 days in relation to the I-140 portability provisions under �106(c) of AC21?
Answer: If it is discovered that a beneficiary has ported off of an unapproved I-140 and I-485 that has
been pending for 180 days or more, the following procedures should be applied:
A. Review the pending I-140 petition to determine if the preponderance of the evidence
establishes that the case is approvable or would have been approvable had it been adjudicated
within 180 days. If the petition is approvable but for an ability to pay issue or any other issue
relating to a time after the filing of the petition, approve the petition on it�s merits. Then
adjudicate the adjustment of status application to determine if the new position is the same or
similar occupational classification for I-140 portability purposes.
B. If a request for additional evidence (RFE) is necessary to resolve a material issue, other than
post-filing issues such as ability to pay, an RFE can be issued to try to resolve the issue. When a
response is received, and if the petition is approvable, follow the procedures in part A above.
Interim guidance for processing I-140 employment-based immigrant petitions and I-485 and H-1B petitions affected
by the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21) (Public Law 106-313)
--------------------------
If that isn't risky.. I think you are all set for that week-end bungy jump from golden gate bridge!
I agree that one should probably do it for compelling reasons.
I think relevent part here is Q 1.
Question 1. How should service centers or district offices process unapproved I-140
petitions that were concurrently filed with I-485 applications that have been pending
180 days in relation to the I-140 portability provisions under �106(c) of AC21?
Answer: If it is discovered that a beneficiary has ported off of an unapproved I-140 and I-485 that has
been pending for 180 days or more, the following procedures should be applied:
A. Review the pending I-140 petition to determine if the preponderance of the evidence
establishes that the case is approvable or would have been approvable had it been adjudicated
within 180 days. If the petition is approvable but for an ability to pay issue or any other issue
relating to a time after the filing of the petition, approve the petition on it�s merits. Then
adjudicate the adjustment of status application to determine if the new position is the same or
similar occupational classification for I-140 portability purposes.
B. If a request for additional evidence (RFE) is necessary to resolve a material issue, other than
post-filing issues such as ability to pay, an RFE can be issued to try to resolve the issue. When a
response is received, and if the petition is approvable, follow the procedures in part A above.
Interim guidance for processing I-140 employment-based immigrant petitions and I-485 and H-1B petitions affected
by the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21) (Public Law 106-313)
--------------------------
If that isn't risky.. I think you are all set for that week-end bungy jump from golden gate bridge!
CreatedToday
03-18 02:56 PM
It's very sad we depend on this bloodsucker employer (former H1s) who setup the shop and leave you in the lurch when they can't squeeze any more of your blood!
You may complain with DOL, but I�m not sure about any statutory limit to file the case.
Good Luck!
Please note I joined his company along with the current the project, only for faster GC as he promised. But when I came back from India, It took a month for me to find a project. He didn't do marketing and then I realized the mistake of joining him (I assume he must have been consulting somewhere and just enjoying with my free $$$). And while I was looking for the project he threatened to cancel my H1 if I don't find a project soon. Now I'm not sure of you stay with someone who is ready to cancel your H1 in your bad times?
. . .
But now my issue is since he cancelled my I-140 I cannot get my H1 renewed. He should have left it there, I didn't complain about him and fed him.
Now I'm mad since I'm stranded, and if possible complain about him.
I need HELP.
You may complain with DOL, but I�m not sure about any statutory limit to file the case.
Good Luck!
Please note I joined his company along with the current the project, only for faster GC as he promised. But when I came back from India, It took a month for me to find a project. He didn't do marketing and then I realized the mistake of joining him (I assume he must have been consulting somewhere and just enjoying with my free $$$). And while I was looking for the project he threatened to cancel my H1 if I don't find a project soon. Now I'm not sure of you stay with someone who is ready to cancel your H1 in your bad times?
. . .
But now my issue is since he cancelled my I-140 I cannot get my H1 renewed. He should have left it there, I didn't complain about him and fed him.
Now I'm mad since I'm stranded, and if possible complain about him.
I need HELP.
rayoflight
12-21 01:51 PM
Have you contributed to the MILLION dollar drive? Please visit the funding thread!
Thanks for asking Pushkar. I did.
Thanks for asking Pushkar. I did.
fide_champ
03-28 05:59 PM
Based on the information, it seems like the consulate is not convinced about the employment or the client letter was not sufficient to prove the employment. You might have to seek help from lawyer sheela murthy to find out what the US consular is looking for in a client letter.
I wouldn't suggest a visitor visa as it might signal other intentions. They probably are aware that you can apply change of status(I-539) from B2 to H4. Consult lawyer murthy and try the H4 once again.
I wouldn't suggest a visitor visa as it might signal other intentions. They probably are aware that you can apply change of status(I-539) from B2 to H4. Consult lawyer murthy and try the H4 once again.
more...
bkshres
10-20 11:28 AM
Hi
I used AC21 to switch the company. First my new company said I have to use my existing old attorney for my I485 case. So, I asked my old attorney to prepare AC21 documents and mailed to USCIS, which is already done.
But now the attorney from new company is saying that they are again doing AC21 documents and will be sending to USCIS. On top, new attorney is asking me to fill G28 form. Is it necessary to file AC21 document twice or make it too confusing? And this G28 is only for me, not for my wife. I am confused with whole thing. How will this work? with my case transferred to new attorney and my wife's case still with old attorney? I also heard from this new attorney that most of the time G28 and AC21 documents will never reach to USCIS file and in that case, USCIS will communicate with old attorney. On one hand, I have to tell my old attorney that I am changing attorney but on other hand I am not even sure whether USCIS will accept or not. My old attorney has been always helpful and he has all my information and original documents.
Is it advisable to switch attorney when you have I-485 pending? and is this filing of AC21 documents twice necessary or will make more confusion in my case? What is advisable in this situation? What should I say to this new company attorney and what should I say to my old attorney? I am in big dilemma...
Please help. I need your suggestion.
Thanks,
BK
I used AC21 to switch the company. First my new company said I have to use my existing old attorney for my I485 case. So, I asked my old attorney to prepare AC21 documents and mailed to USCIS, which is already done.
But now the attorney from new company is saying that they are again doing AC21 documents and will be sending to USCIS. On top, new attorney is asking me to fill G28 form. Is it necessary to file AC21 document twice or make it too confusing? And this G28 is only for me, not for my wife. I am confused with whole thing. How will this work? with my case transferred to new attorney and my wife's case still with old attorney? I also heard from this new attorney that most of the time G28 and AC21 documents will never reach to USCIS file and in that case, USCIS will communicate with old attorney. On one hand, I have to tell my old attorney that I am changing attorney but on other hand I am not even sure whether USCIS will accept or not. My old attorney has been always helpful and he has all my information and original documents.
Is it advisable to switch attorney when you have I-485 pending? and is this filing of AC21 documents twice necessary or will make more confusion in my case? What is advisable in this situation? What should I say to this new company attorney and what should I say to my old attorney? I am in big dilemma...
Please help. I need your suggestion.
Thanks,
BK
Mayra75
12-31 07:29 AM
Guys ,
Is there anyone know whether H1 increasing issue will be introduced again in Congress or not ?
Is there anyone know whether H1 increasing issue will be introduced again in Congress or not ?
more...
addsf345
07-17 06:46 PM
Just got back from Canada. It was really straightforward.
Showed passport and GC at Canadian checkpost... No questions asked about canadian immigration.
On the way back showed green cards, again no questions....
Wow... after almost 10 years on H1, it is unbelievable how uneventful travel on GC can be :D
so this is only for ppl with BOTH white card and green card.
what bout rest of us like who never been to canada or applied for canadian white card. if i get GC in future and visit canada, will I face any issues? just wondering?
Showed passport and GC at Canadian checkpost... No questions asked about canadian immigration.
On the way back showed green cards, again no questions....
Wow... after almost 10 years on H1, it is unbelievable how uneventful travel on GC can be :D
so this is only for ppl with BOTH white card and green card.
what bout rest of us like who never been to canada or applied for canadian white card. if i get GC in future and visit canada, will I face any issues? just wondering?
immi_grant
06-25 02:10 PM
Thanks for the response !!
This client is a direct client to my company and there are no middle layers or vendors. So like you said if I can get an email from the client that they can't give me the letter via their corporate email would work ? Would this suffice to open a MTR ?
Thanks in advance.
This client is a direct client to my company and there are no middle layers or vendors. So like you said if I can get an email from the client that they can't give me the letter via their corporate email would work ? Would this suffice to open a MTR ?
Thanks in advance.
more...
petersebastian
04-01 11:31 PM
you dont have to marry. just remain as illegal and they will GC sooner.
Hmm really? I thought that is not possible anymore. Can you give me the details or refer me to a website that has them? Thank you!
Hmm really? I thought that is not possible anymore. Can you give me the details or refer me to a website that has them? Thank you!
vts31
10-20 10:08 PM
correct...and holy crap u have a lot of posts!
more...
sundar99
05-01 01:39 PM
Does - Emergency Appoinment include - people already working in US ? are you sure ?
sagar_nyc
02-10 05:31 PM
My I 140 got approved in 2006. And my lawyer got approval notice. He also gave me copy of it. I just registered my I 140 case number on USCIS site. I was stunned to find out the status that
Current Status: Notice Returned as Undeliverable.
On September 19, 2006, the post office returned the notice we last sent you on this case I140 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR ALIEN WORKER as undeliverable. This may have serious effects on processing this case. Please call 1-800-375-5283 to update your mailing address for this notice to be re-sent.
I immediately contacted my lawyer. He said that Since He have original approved copy of I140 , I should not worry about it.
I tried even contacting IO. But IO told me that regarding I140 only employer or attorney can call to discuss further. She didn't give me any answers.
Gurus what you think?
Current Status: Notice Returned as Undeliverable.
On September 19, 2006, the post office returned the notice we last sent you on this case I140 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR ALIEN WORKER as undeliverable. This may have serious effects on processing this case. Please call 1-800-375-5283 to update your mailing address for this notice to be re-sent.
I immediately contacted my lawyer. He said that Since He have original approved copy of I140 , I should not worry about it.
I tried even contacting IO. But IO told me that regarding I140 only employer or attorney can call to discuss further. She didn't give me any answers.
Gurus what you think?
more...
surge
02-20 08:25 PM
Your authorized period of stay ended on 10/1. Your marriage does not matter. The only reason you MAY be able to adjust status in your situation is the fact that you married a U.S. citizen. It is VERY risky to leave the United States before your I485 gets approved. Please consult an attorney before doing so. AP does not guarantee re-admittance especially when one was EVER out of status.
Thank you for advice. i did not realize the issue was so complex. I did call uscis after i got married before i sent in my OAS papers and asked them how can i maintain legal status after my j-1 expires. they said that since i came legally, haven't broken any rules and got married before status expiration - i maintain "somewhat legal status"(i do not have j-1 2 year mandatory homecoutry stay either). My wife is US citizen.
So i thought even thought period from 10/01 to 11/26 (receipt for receiving both i-485 and i-130) can be considered out of status - after that i can be considered a resident alien which would mean that it is still a legal status.
Thank you for advice. i did not realize the issue was so complex. I did call uscis after i got married before i sent in my OAS papers and asked them how can i maintain legal status after my j-1 expires. they said that since i came legally, haven't broken any rules and got married before status expiration - i maintain "somewhat legal status"(i do not have j-1 2 year mandatory homecoutry stay either). My wife is US citizen.
So i thought even thought period from 10/01 to 11/26 (receipt for receiving both i-485 and i-130) can be considered out of status - after that i can be considered a resident alien which would mean that it is still a legal status.
chunky
07-26 03:21 PM
We are planning to go India in October (after receipt of 185). If I apply for change of status it will be cancelled because she left country before aprooval".
I was thinking if we do not get AP by then she can go to embassy and request for H4 visa. Will it be fine. I am asking too many questions
Quote"As far as I know, if a 485 is pending, a person can continue to be in the US without a visa. So she would not require a H-4.
All the same, I would still get a H-4 as this will be advantageous as,
1. Your receipt has not yet arrived. What if the Application is rejected for initial evidence problem?
2. AP takes a long time to come and she has to make an urgent trip back home?
3. 485 gets denied by mistake. She has to have a valid status to fall back on, so you can file motion to reopen, etc.
The chances of any of the above happening are low, but it is better to anticipate trouble and be as prepared as we can."
I was thinking if we do not get AP by then she can go to embassy and request for H4 visa. Will it be fine. I am asking too many questions
Quote"As far as I know, if a 485 is pending, a person can continue to be in the US without a visa. So she would not require a H-4.
All the same, I would still get a H-4 as this will be advantageous as,
1. Your receipt has not yet arrived. What if the Application is rejected for initial evidence problem?
2. AP takes a long time to come and she has to make an urgent trip back home?
3. 485 gets denied by mistake. She has to have a valid status to fall back on, so you can file motion to reopen, etc.
The chances of any of the above happening are low, but it is better to anticipate trouble and be as prepared as we can."
more...
naturopathicpt
06-26 05:32 PM
I appreciate your reply but I cannot understand what you mean on your first response Atty. Prashanthi. Some of my questions on my first statement have not been answered.
solaris27
02-27 08:12 AM
from approval date
more...
chanduv23
07-31 11:10 AM
You are not. EAD is basically for spouse. Primary applicant need to be careful on using EAD.
I second that. EAD must be used only in dire circumstances like exploitative employer, low salary, layoff, fired, etc.. if you are having a decent job and good pay, you are better off to be on h1b as much as possible
I second that. EAD must be used only in dire circumstances like exploitative employer, low salary, layoff, fired, etc.. if you are having a decent job and good pay, you are better off to be on h1b as much as possible
Karthikthiru
08-26 12:36 PM
Congrats. Did you change from AOS to CP? or You choose CP when you applied for I-140
paskal
04-12 08:23 PM
In other words we can go through CompeteAmerica, as this is the umbrella organization working in this area?
we do collaborate closely with compete america on these issues.
we also requested everyone to get letters from their employers for administrative fixes...perhaps you missed that. we have also constantly encouraged everyone to present these issues to their employers and get support for immigration reform. at least one major corporation's employees in immigration voice have successfully lobbied their employer to become active and help bring immigration reform. the given corporation has been a strong voice and a great asset to us since then.
so you see my friend, it's really up to you. core team or iv leaders can't do this. you can. it's a good idea. go ahead now and walk the talk! hopefully we will see your employer "abc" (that's it, right Harivinder?) speaking up for us soon.
we do collaborate closely with compete america on these issues.
we also requested everyone to get letters from their employers for administrative fixes...perhaps you missed that. we have also constantly encouraged everyone to present these issues to their employers and get support for immigration reform. at least one major corporation's employees in immigration voice have successfully lobbied their employer to become active and help bring immigration reform. the given corporation has been a strong voice and a great asset to us since then.
so you see my friend, it's really up to you. core team or iv leaders can't do this. you can. it's a good idea. go ahead now and walk the talk! hopefully we will see your employer "abc" (that's it, right Harivinder?) speaking up for us soon.
perm2gc
07-08 10:00 PM
Wonderful support. Thank you. So far we have over 850 viewings and have been rated 76 times and 23 comments. That has managed to push us to #6 in the News and Politics stories of the day. This morning we overtook a Ron Paul story. If you have not had a chance to check the video out, please rate it by clicking on the stars or leave a comment as that will push our position even further.
Thank you once again. My son is beginning to get quite optimistic that CNN might just pick this one :-)
This video has either been removed or has a malformed URL
Thank you once again. My son is beginning to get quite optimistic that CNN might just pick this one :-)
This video has either been removed or has a malformed URL
sobers
02-09 04:10 PM
While we all know loony loo tends to primarily go after illegals, we also are well aware of his anti-immigration stance and anti-H1B tirade.
Southern Poverty Law Center, a respected civil rights group from the MLK era, operates an "Immigration Watch".
This is what they said about him:
Broken Record
Lou Dobbs' daily 'Broken Borders' CNN segment has focused on immigration for years. But there's one issue Dobbs just won't take on.
Lou Dobbs is a genial sort, a pleasant-faced CNN anchorman who regularly presents himself as standing up for American working men and women against those who would injure them. Hosting "Lou Dobbs Tonight" for a prime-time hour every weekday, he is also well known and powerful. So when Dobbs focuses on an issue, millions of Americans learn just what it is that Dobbs thinks they should know.
For more than two years now, Dobbs has served up a populist approach to immigration on nightly segments of his newscast entitled "Broken Borders." He has relentlessly covered the issue, although hardly from a traditional news perspective -- Dobbs favors clamping down on illegal immigration, and his "reporting" never fails to make that clear. He has covered the same issues, and the same anti-immigration leaders, time after time after time. In recent months, Dobbs has run countless upbeat reports on the "citizen border patrols" that have sprung up around the country since last April's Minuteman Project, a paramilitary effort to seal the Arizona border.
But there's one thing Lou Dobbs won't do. No matter what others report about the movement, Dobbs has failed to present mounting and persistent evidence of anti-Hispanic racism in anti-immigration groups and citizen border patrols.
It's not that Dobbs hasn't allowed a pro-immigration activist or two to complain about efforts like the Minuteman Project ("vigilantes," according to President Bush), or even that he has made racist statements on his show. What the anchorman has done is repeatedly decline to present the evidence that links these groups to racism, calling the very idea "mind-boggling." On his July 29 show, he called the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which he said he liked in other ways, "despicable" and "reprehensible" for saying otherwise.
Consider some of what Dobbs has failed to report, despite the fact that in almost every case these developments were reported widely elsewhere:
GLENN SPENCER, head of the anti-immigration American Patrol, has been interviewed at least twice on the show, on Jan. 7 and June 4, 2004. Spencer's Web site is jammed with anti-Mexican vitriol and he pushes the idea that the Mexican government is involved in a secret plot to take over the Southwest -- facts never mentioned on Dobbs' show. Spencer's group is regarded as a hate group by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. Spencer has spoken at least twice to the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, which has described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity," and once to American Renaissance, a group that contends that blacks are genetically inferior to whites. Dobbs has never reported those ties, or mentioned Spencer's more wild-eyed contentions, such as his prediction that "thousands will die" in a supposedly forthcoming Mexican invasion. His CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer, on the hand, featured Spencer on his own show but reported Mexico's official response and SPLC's hate group designation.
In late 2004, it was revealed that the new head of a national advisory board to Protect Arizona Now, an anti-immigration organization, was a long-time white supremacist who was also an editorial adviser to the racist Council of Conservative Citizens. Although VIRGINIA ABERNETHY's controversial selection was reported prominently in virtually every Arizona paper -- and despite the fact that Dobbs heavily covered the anti-immigration referendum that Protect Arizona Now was advocating -- Dobbs never mentioned the affair at all.
A man named JOE MCCUTCHEN was quoted last April as part of a feature on the Minuteman Project, described by Dobbs as "a terrific group of concerned, caring Americans." No mention was made of the fact that McCutchen, who heads up an anti-immigration group called Protect Arkansas Now, had written a whole series of anti-Semitic letters to the editor and given a speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens -- facts revealed the prior January by SPLC, causing Arkansas' Republican governor to denounce McCutchen's group.
This August, BILL PARMLEY, a Minuteman leader in Goliad County, Texas, quit the group because of what he described as widespread racism. Similarly, in September, newspapers reported that another Texas Minuteman, Janet Ahrens, had resigned because members "wanted to shoot the taco meat." Dobbs never mentioned either of these people, who were featured prominently elsewhere.
On Oct. 4, Dobbs had PAUL STREITZ, a co-founder of Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, as a guest on his show. Streitz denounced Mayor John DeStefano Jr. for "turning New Haven into a banana republic" by favoring identification cards for undocumented workers. Two days later, newspapers revealed that two of the group's other founders had just quit, saying Streitz had led it in a racially charged direction. Dobbs has never reported this.
BARBARA COE, leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, was quoted on a show last March bitterly attacking Home Depot for "betray[ing] Americans," apparently because Hispanic day laborers often gather in front of the store looking for work. Not mentioned were her group, listed by the SPLC as a hate group, or the fact that she routinely refers to Mexicans as "savages." Coe recently described herself as a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a "white pride" group formed from the remnants of the segregationist White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 1960s that were once described by Thurgood Marshal as "the uptown Klan." She also told The Denver Post in November that she had given a speech to the group.
CHRIS SIMCOX, co-founder of the Minuteman Project and a top national anti-immigration leader, was arrested in 2003 by federal park rangers for carrying a weapon illegally while tracking border-crossers on federal parkland. While Simcox has been repeatedly interviewed on his show, Dobbs has failed to mention that arrest or bigoted anti-Hispanic comments Simcox made to the Intelligence Report several years ago.
Although Dobbs has steered clear of the racist comments that some of his guests have made elsewhere, he has warned of "illegal aliens who not only threaten our economy and security, but also our health and well-being," according to Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media monitor. In 2003, FAIR added, a reporter on Dobbs' show grossly mischaracterized a National Academy of Sciences report. The report found that immigrants provided a net gain of $1 billion to $10 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product, but the CNN reporter said the report had found the economic impact of immigrants worked out to a net loss of up to $10 billion.
Dobbs is revered in anti-immigration quarters and on the far right generally. He is the winner of the 2004 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration, given by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). CIS claims to be a "nonpartisan research institute," but in fact is a thinly disguised anti-immigration organization. The 2005 Katz Award went to the immigration beat reporter for The Washington Times, a hard-right newspaper based in Washington, D.C.
In general, Lou Dobbs has declined to report salient negative facts about anti-immigration leaders he approves of, or simply avoided mentioning certain of their views -- notably the conspiracy theories propounded by people like Spencer.
Still, Dobbs is hardly immune to the lure of the weird. Last September, he offered up Idaho meteorologist Scott Stevens as a guest on his show. Stevens had just left an Idaho television news program immediately after telling viewers of a bizarre theory that Hurricane Katrina was caused by unknown evildoers. "Terrorists were engaging in a type of eco-terrorism where they could alter the climate, set off earthquakes and volcanoes," he told Dobbs. Stevens said they were using "scalar waves," invented by the Japanese, to attack America with Category 5 storms.
"Intriguing assertion," Dobbs concluded at the end of the interview. Much the same might be said, and in the same spirit, about the news "reporting" that Dobbs presents as he doggedly explores and supports the anti-immigration movement.
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=589
Southern Poverty Law Center, a respected civil rights group from the MLK era, operates an "Immigration Watch".
This is what they said about him:
Broken Record
Lou Dobbs' daily 'Broken Borders' CNN segment has focused on immigration for years. But there's one issue Dobbs just won't take on.
Lou Dobbs is a genial sort, a pleasant-faced CNN anchorman who regularly presents himself as standing up for American working men and women against those who would injure them. Hosting "Lou Dobbs Tonight" for a prime-time hour every weekday, he is also well known and powerful. So when Dobbs focuses on an issue, millions of Americans learn just what it is that Dobbs thinks they should know.
For more than two years now, Dobbs has served up a populist approach to immigration on nightly segments of his newscast entitled "Broken Borders." He has relentlessly covered the issue, although hardly from a traditional news perspective -- Dobbs favors clamping down on illegal immigration, and his "reporting" never fails to make that clear. He has covered the same issues, and the same anti-immigration leaders, time after time after time. In recent months, Dobbs has run countless upbeat reports on the "citizen border patrols" that have sprung up around the country since last April's Minuteman Project, a paramilitary effort to seal the Arizona border.
But there's one thing Lou Dobbs won't do. No matter what others report about the movement, Dobbs has failed to present mounting and persistent evidence of anti-Hispanic racism in anti-immigration groups and citizen border patrols.
It's not that Dobbs hasn't allowed a pro-immigration activist or two to complain about efforts like the Minuteman Project ("vigilantes," according to President Bush), or even that he has made racist statements on his show. What the anchorman has done is repeatedly decline to present the evidence that links these groups to racism, calling the very idea "mind-boggling." On his July 29 show, he called the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which he said he liked in other ways, "despicable" and "reprehensible" for saying otherwise.
Consider some of what Dobbs has failed to report, despite the fact that in almost every case these developments were reported widely elsewhere:
GLENN SPENCER, head of the anti-immigration American Patrol, has been interviewed at least twice on the show, on Jan. 7 and June 4, 2004. Spencer's Web site is jammed with anti-Mexican vitriol and he pushes the idea that the Mexican government is involved in a secret plot to take over the Southwest -- facts never mentioned on Dobbs' show. Spencer's group is regarded as a hate group by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. Spencer has spoken at least twice to the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, which has described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity," and once to American Renaissance, a group that contends that blacks are genetically inferior to whites. Dobbs has never reported those ties, or mentioned Spencer's more wild-eyed contentions, such as his prediction that "thousands will die" in a supposedly forthcoming Mexican invasion. His CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer, on the hand, featured Spencer on his own show but reported Mexico's official response and SPLC's hate group designation.
In late 2004, it was revealed that the new head of a national advisory board to Protect Arizona Now, an anti-immigration organization, was a long-time white supremacist who was also an editorial adviser to the racist Council of Conservative Citizens. Although VIRGINIA ABERNETHY's controversial selection was reported prominently in virtually every Arizona paper -- and despite the fact that Dobbs heavily covered the anti-immigration referendum that Protect Arizona Now was advocating -- Dobbs never mentioned the affair at all.
A man named JOE MCCUTCHEN was quoted last April as part of a feature on the Minuteman Project, described by Dobbs as "a terrific group of concerned, caring Americans." No mention was made of the fact that McCutchen, who heads up an anti-immigration group called Protect Arkansas Now, had written a whole series of anti-Semitic letters to the editor and given a speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens -- facts revealed the prior January by SPLC, causing Arkansas' Republican governor to denounce McCutchen's group.
This August, BILL PARMLEY, a Minuteman leader in Goliad County, Texas, quit the group because of what he described as widespread racism. Similarly, in September, newspapers reported that another Texas Minuteman, Janet Ahrens, had resigned because members "wanted to shoot the taco meat." Dobbs never mentioned either of these people, who were featured prominently elsewhere.
On Oct. 4, Dobbs had PAUL STREITZ, a co-founder of Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, as a guest on his show. Streitz denounced Mayor John DeStefano Jr. for "turning New Haven into a banana republic" by favoring identification cards for undocumented workers. Two days later, newspapers revealed that two of the group's other founders had just quit, saying Streitz had led it in a racially charged direction. Dobbs has never reported this.
BARBARA COE, leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, was quoted on a show last March bitterly attacking Home Depot for "betray[ing] Americans," apparently because Hispanic day laborers often gather in front of the store looking for work. Not mentioned were her group, listed by the SPLC as a hate group, or the fact that she routinely refers to Mexicans as "savages." Coe recently described herself as a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a "white pride" group formed from the remnants of the segregationist White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 1960s that were once described by Thurgood Marshal as "the uptown Klan." She also told The Denver Post in November that she had given a speech to the group.
CHRIS SIMCOX, co-founder of the Minuteman Project and a top national anti-immigration leader, was arrested in 2003 by federal park rangers for carrying a weapon illegally while tracking border-crossers on federal parkland. While Simcox has been repeatedly interviewed on his show, Dobbs has failed to mention that arrest or bigoted anti-Hispanic comments Simcox made to the Intelligence Report several years ago.
Although Dobbs has steered clear of the racist comments that some of his guests have made elsewhere, he has warned of "illegal aliens who not only threaten our economy and security, but also our health and well-being," according to Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media monitor. In 2003, FAIR added, a reporter on Dobbs' show grossly mischaracterized a National Academy of Sciences report. The report found that immigrants provided a net gain of $1 billion to $10 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product, but the CNN reporter said the report had found the economic impact of immigrants worked out to a net loss of up to $10 billion.
Dobbs is revered in anti-immigration quarters and on the far right generally. He is the winner of the 2004 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration, given by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). CIS claims to be a "nonpartisan research institute," but in fact is a thinly disguised anti-immigration organization. The 2005 Katz Award went to the immigration beat reporter for The Washington Times, a hard-right newspaper based in Washington, D.C.
In general, Lou Dobbs has declined to report salient negative facts about anti-immigration leaders he approves of, or simply avoided mentioning certain of their views -- notably the conspiracy theories propounded by people like Spencer.
Still, Dobbs is hardly immune to the lure of the weird. Last September, he offered up Idaho meteorologist Scott Stevens as a guest on his show. Stevens had just left an Idaho television news program immediately after telling viewers of a bizarre theory that Hurricane Katrina was caused by unknown evildoers. "Terrorists were engaging in a type of eco-terrorism where they could alter the climate, set off earthquakes and volcanoes," he told Dobbs. Stevens said they were using "scalar waves," invented by the Japanese, to attack America with Category 5 storms.
"Intriguing assertion," Dobbs concluded at the end of the interview. Much the same might be said, and in the same spirit, about the news "reporting" that Dobbs presents as he doggedly explores and supports the anti-immigration movement.
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=589
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