whitecollarslave
03-26 05:43 PM
I dont know of any link to a particular publication, but I thought it was a common knowledge that the whole point of labor certification process, is for the DOL to monitor that a potential US worker (I thought it meant US Citizen but may be not), is not being displaced by a foreign worker. To be clear here though, the DOL does not prevent an employer from going ahead and sponsoring an H1B and hiring a foreign employee. But DOL is legally directed to reject such labor applications.
Though this is applicable only for H1B hiring and subsequent filing of GC process for such an employee, I am wondering whether there is any loophole in DOL's directives that might provide a cover for employers to enquire whether a propective employee is US Citizens are not.... Especailly in the PERM process don't they have to do active recruiting efforts and gather statiscis that they tried to hire US citizens ..?? How can an employer gather statistics if they didn't ask for work authorization related details....?
May be due to possible loopholes in such laws...they are able to take it a step further and enquiring about the kind of work authorization a candidate possesses!
There are no loopholes. I do not find anything that explicitly states that a US citizen should be given preference over GC or other immigrants. On the contrary, the employment laws explicitly prohibits discrimination based on nationality and immigration status. The whole point of PERM is to protect the "US worker", not just US citizen. See the following -
http://www.murthy.com/news/n_permfl.html
http://www.ailc.com/perm-labor-certification.htm
http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/perm.cfm
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/eta/title_20/part_656/20CFR656.3.htm
They all refer to "US worker" not "US Citizen". I do not see any reason to panic over this.
For the purposes of PERM, the employer only needs to know whether the candidate is legally authorized to work in the US. They do not need to know if the person has a green card or is a citizen or a refugee, etc.
HOWEVER, I am not able to find a concrete definition of a "U.S worker". I am not able to conclusively determine if a person in AOS using EAD falls under the umbrella of a "U.S. Worker" as defined by the law. I would think it would, since somebody on EAD is not just specific to EB immigrants. It applies to FB, refugees, agricultural workers, and a whole bunch of other immigrants.
So, I guess it all boils down to what is the legal status of somebody who has 485 pending, EAD, and AP? At that point you are no longer on H-1B. Is this status covered in the definition of a "U.S. worker"? ... Anybody?
Though this is applicable only for H1B hiring and subsequent filing of GC process for such an employee, I am wondering whether there is any loophole in DOL's directives that might provide a cover for employers to enquire whether a propective employee is US Citizens are not.... Especailly in the PERM process don't they have to do active recruiting efforts and gather statiscis that they tried to hire US citizens ..?? How can an employer gather statistics if they didn't ask for work authorization related details....?
May be due to possible loopholes in such laws...they are able to take it a step further and enquiring about the kind of work authorization a candidate possesses!
There are no loopholes. I do not find anything that explicitly states that a US citizen should be given preference over GC or other immigrants. On the contrary, the employment laws explicitly prohibits discrimination based on nationality and immigration status. The whole point of PERM is to protect the "US worker", not just US citizen. See the following -
http://www.murthy.com/news/n_permfl.html
http://www.ailc.com/perm-labor-certification.htm
http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/perm.cfm
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/eta/title_20/part_656/20CFR656.3.htm
They all refer to "US worker" not "US Citizen". I do not see any reason to panic over this.
For the purposes of PERM, the employer only needs to know whether the candidate is legally authorized to work in the US. They do not need to know if the person has a green card or is a citizen or a refugee, etc.
HOWEVER, I am not able to find a concrete definition of a "U.S worker". I am not able to conclusively determine if a person in AOS using EAD falls under the umbrella of a "U.S. Worker" as defined by the law. I would think it would, since somebody on EAD is not just specific to EB immigrants. It applies to FB, refugees, agricultural workers, and a whole bunch of other immigrants.
So, I guess it all boils down to what is the legal status of somebody who has 485 pending, EAD, and AP? At that point you are no longer on H-1B. Is this status covered in the definition of a "U.S. worker"? ... Anybody?
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bayarea07
09-15 10:54 AM
bump
gcForV
07-10 09:21 PM
Great!!!
Good coverage:
http://news.google.com/news?um=1&tab=wn&hl=en&q=flowers%20uscis
http://www.google.com/search?tab=nw&hl=en&q=flowers%20uscis
Good coverage:
http://news.google.com/news?um=1&tab=wn&hl=en&q=flowers%20uscis
http://www.google.com/search?tab=nw&hl=en&q=flowers%20uscis
2011 Princess Diana#39;s funeral
obviously
07-09 06:41 PM
IV Core - Urge you to publish a PRESS RELEASE tomorrow to build upon the current message.
Thank the Director for acknowledging the grassroots democractic process currently underway. Acknowledge your genuine happiness that these flowers will find a new home where they will cheer up and provide company to young men and women who are preserving and protecting great ideals of democracy. This is a clarion call to keep the pain and frustration of high skilled legal immigrants in mind when formulating and executing aspects of legislation and public policy for legal immigration.
Thank the Director for acknowledging the grassroots democractic process currently underway. Acknowledge your genuine happiness that these flowers will find a new home where they will cheer up and provide company to young men and women who are preserving and protecting great ideals of democracy. This is a clarion call to keep the pain and frustration of high skilled legal immigrants in mind when formulating and executing aspects of legislation and public policy for legal immigration.
more...
amitjoey
06-25 12:42 PM
IV members have saved you a lot of money on attorney phone calls, getting answers to medical test questions and other general questions. Please contribute to IV so that we can keep this effort going. While everybody is busy collecting documents and paperwork for 485, core IV again is doing there personal paperwork and + lobbying.
Please contribute, especially if you are new and never contributed. Please do not be a freeloader and get your questions answered and run away.
Please contribute, especially if you are new and never contributed. Please do not be a freeloader and get your questions answered and run away.
syzygy
07-10 09:58 AM
Like recycled labor
YEP courtesy of a thousand screwed immigrants;)
You know what lets donate blood, kidneys, brains, hair, other miscallaneous body fluids as well. Lets keep on giving and giving until they get the message that "hey these people cant give any more. Lets kick them out and get a fresh new batch of idiots".
YEP courtesy of a thousand screwed immigrants;)
You know what lets donate blood, kidneys, brains, hair, other miscallaneous body fluids as well. Lets keep on giving and giving until they get the message that "hey these people cant give any more. Lets kick them out and get a fresh new batch of idiots".
more...
check_rd
05-23 08:42 PM
Hi,
I do not have medical records to prove that I have taken some of the vaccination that is mandatory for the medical test. However, I do have taken those and my Doctor back in India has those records. Is there a way people know that these records in "any format" / a "specific format" can be faxed or fedexed here and can be used?
Any help will be highly apprciated.
- N
Can be of any format . Sample
To WHOM SO EVER IT IS CONCERNED
This is to certify that Mr XXX is upto date with his TD and MMR vacinations.
From,
Dr ....
Address and Seal
This needs to be taken on the Doctor's Letter Pad.
I have been tested with TB (PPD) positive and have been asked to take an XRAY. I called up my PCP doctor and he has authorized to take the XRAY covered under my insurance if not i would have to pay $60. Its one way of saving money if XRAY is needed go talk to your PCP and get approval so its free.
I do not have medical records to prove that I have taken some of the vaccination that is mandatory for the medical test. However, I do have taken those and my Doctor back in India has those records. Is there a way people know that these records in "any format" / a "specific format" can be faxed or fedexed here and can be used?
Any help will be highly apprciated.
- N
Can be of any format . Sample
To WHOM SO EVER IT IS CONCERNED
This is to certify that Mr XXX is upto date with his TD and MMR vacinations.
From,
Dr ....
Address and Seal
This needs to be taken on the Doctor's Letter Pad.
I have been tested with TB (PPD) positive and have been asked to take an XRAY. I called up my PCP doctor and he has authorized to take the XRAY covered under my insurance if not i would have to pay $60. Its one way of saving money if XRAY is needed go talk to your PCP and get approval so its free.
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rpat1968
10-07 04:34 AM
SOP
You contacted CIS Ombadsman.
What was thier response? How fast did they respond to you?
Were they of any help?
You contacted CIS Ombadsman.
What was thier response? How fast did they respond to you?
Were they of any help?
more...
katrina
05-10 02:49 PM
My wife is on F1 visa and I am hoping the dates will move soon and we will be able to file 485. I would like to know if
>she can file 485 by being in F1 ?
If you are under H1b and she is applying for 485 together with you then answer is yes she can.
>Once she files being in F1, can she still continue to be on F1 and travel in and out of US on F1?
No because F1 is for non immigrant as F1 you show that you have no intention to move to US but once your file your I-485 you show an intention to move and stay in US therefore F1 is no longer valid.
>What will be her status when she starts using EAD if she filed being in F1?
Once she filed 485 she will be waiting for her status to be Permanent resident.
her F1 is no longer valid. She can work using her EAD but if I485 got reject she will be automatically out of status and has to go out from US.
I'm not a lawyer what I've told and writte has to be confirm with your attorney.
Also Please see below answer by Attorney Murthy:
Hello. My wife is studying on F-1 visa and I filed I-485 for her. (I have a valid H1B.) Can we now change from AOS to CP? Will this in any way affect her status or mine?
Attorney Murthy : A person on F-1 is no longer considered on F-1 status once she files the I-485 papers, unlike the person on an H1B who is legally allowed to maintain both statuses. So, if a person who only had F-1 status switches to CP, then the spouse has to switch to H-4 status in the U.S. immediately. Otherwise, she is considered out of status in the U.S. if the USCIS agrees to cancel the I-485 and convert the case to CP.
>she can file 485 by being in F1 ?
If you are under H1b and she is applying for 485 together with you then answer is yes she can.
>Once she files being in F1, can she still continue to be on F1 and travel in and out of US on F1?
No because F1 is for non immigrant as F1 you show that you have no intention to move to US but once your file your I-485 you show an intention to move and stay in US therefore F1 is no longer valid.
>What will be her status when she starts using EAD if she filed being in F1?
Once she filed 485 she will be waiting for her status to be Permanent resident.
her F1 is no longer valid. She can work using her EAD but if I485 got reject she will be automatically out of status and has to go out from US.
I'm not a lawyer what I've told and writte has to be confirm with your attorney.
Also Please see below answer by Attorney Murthy:
Hello. My wife is studying on F-1 visa and I filed I-485 for her. (I have a valid H1B.) Can we now change from AOS to CP? Will this in any way affect her status or mine?
Attorney Murthy : A person on F-1 is no longer considered on F-1 status once she files the I-485 papers, unlike the person on an H1B who is legally allowed to maintain both statuses. So, if a person who only had F-1 status switches to CP, then the spouse has to switch to H-4 status in the U.S. immediately. Otherwise, she is considered out of status in the U.S. if the USCIS agrees to cancel the I-485 and convert the case to CP.
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crystal
07-12 11:51 PM
Great ..
Guys,
I come from South Florida (MIAMI / FT LAUDERDALE /WEST PALM BEACH). Sun-Sentinel is a news paper major in this part of the world. We are expected to see a front page coverage about this turn-about by DOS and USCIS on july 07 bulletin.
Guys,
I come from South Florida (MIAMI / FT LAUDERDALE /WEST PALM BEACH). Sun-Sentinel is a news paper major in this part of the world. We are expected to see a front page coverage about this turn-about by DOS and USCIS on july 07 bulletin.
more...
485Mbe4001
10-18 11:29 AM
:p, unfortunately bouquets will not work here, some people on one of the yahoo groups did try that, pro flowers refunded the money because FBI doesnt accept flowers or some crap like that:eek:
Thank you sir. If nothing else moves forward on this Front , we have Bouquets :-)
Thank you sir. If nothing else moves forward on this Front , we have Bouquets :-)
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nrk
10-02 10:28 AM
Congrats
Got the card production ordered e-mail!!..
Got the card production ordered e-mail!!..
more...
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EkAurAaya
05-23 04:55 PM
For those of us who have become "current" with the latest VB movements, I have some discouraging news for you: at least for the Nebraska Processing Center, the current processing date for an employment-based I-485 has retrogressed from September to August,2006. Only a small step backwards but a step backwards all the same.
It's still a step forward then not having an opportunity to file at all :cool:
It's still a step forward then not having an opportunity to file at all :cool:
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mhathi
09-09 12:00 PM
Add Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.)202- 225-3072 in NOT TO CALL LIST
Thanks, I edited my OP
Thanks, I edited my OP
more...
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snathan
08-26 01:24 AM
wrong calculation 5000/2500=2. It is 2 cents perminute. Have you used C# program?:)
Any way with vonage, one can call other friends in all other 60 counties and others part of us too..
If 2 cents per min = 5000 X 2 = 10000 cents = $100?
Any way with vonage, one can call other friends in all other 60 counties and others part of us too..
If 2 cents per min = 5000 X 2 = 10000 cents = $100?
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santb1975
01-09 09:21 PM
Anyone have a count?
more...
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gveerab
08-21 11:58 AM
MetroPCS has a plan with unlimited international calling with $50 mobile phone plan.
http://www.metropcs.com/plans/default.aspx
http://www.metropcs.com/plans/default.aspx
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mundada
01-24 02:54 PM
There is a direct Air India service from JFK to Mumbai, painful commute if living in NJ but for those closer to JFK, this is the best flight they can have. The flight was recently launched, everyone has personal programming, Indian food, enough leg space etc. Surprisingly it is Air India! But then...
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wc_user
10-13 04:25 PM
yes. I did. I have sent them an e-mail mentioning the delay.
prinive
07-09 06:36 PM
The campaign already made the point. Guys this campaign is great sucess. we are able to get a massage from the lion from its den. :rolleyes:
jasmin45
07-13 07:24 AM
The whole controversy involving Lou Dobbs and leprosy started with a “60 Minutes” segment a few weeks ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonside.html
Robert Caplin for The New York Times
Lou Dobbs was at the anchor desk for CNN’s 2006 election coverage.
Related Articles
Immigrants and Prison (May 30, 2007)
Bush Takes On Conservatives Over Immigration (May 30, 2007)
Reader Responses (May 30, 2007)
Episodes of "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
"60 Minutes" of May 6, 2007 Leprosy Statistics The segment was a profile of Mr. Dobbs, and while doing background research for it, a “60 Minutes” producer came across a 2005 news report from Mr. Dobbs’s CNN program on contagious diseases. In the report, one of Mr. Dobbs’s correspondents said there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far more than in the past.
When Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” sat down to interview Mr. Dobbs on camera, she mentioned the report and told him that there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it.
“Well, I can tell you this,” he replied. “If we reported it, it’s a fact.”
With that Orwellian chestnut, Mr. Dobbs escalated the leprosy dispute into a full-scale media brouhaha. The next night, back on his own program, the same CNN correspondent who had done the earlier report, Christine Romans, repeated the 7,000 number, and Mr. Dobbs added that, if anything, it was probably an underestimate. A week later, the Southern Poverty Law Center — the civil rights group that has long been critical of Mr. Dobbs — took out advertisements in The New York Times and USA Today demanding that CNN run a correction.
Finally, Mr. Dobbs played host to two top officials from the law center on his program, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” where he called their accusations outrageous and they called him wrong, unfair and “one of the most popular people on the white supremacist Web sites.”
We’ll get to the merits of the charges and countercharges shortly, but first it’s worth considering why, beyond entertainment value, all this matters. Over the last few years, Lou Dobbs has transformed himself into arguably this country’s foremost populist. It’s an odd role, given that he spent the 1980s and ’90s buttering up chief executives on CNN, but he’s now playing it very successfully. He has become a voice for the real economic anxiety felt by many Americans.
The audience for his program has grown 72 percent since 2003, and CBS — yes, the same network that broadcasts “60 Minutes” — just hired him as a commentator on “The Early Show.” Many elites, as Mr. Dobbs likes to call them, despise him, but others see him as a hero. His latest book, “War on the Middle Class,” was a best seller and received a sympathetic review in this newspaper. Mario Cuomo has said Mr. Dobbs is “addicted to economic truth.”
Mr. Dobbs argues that the middle class has many enemies: corporate lobbyists, greedy executives, wimpy journalists, corrupt politicians. But none play a bigger role than illegal immigrants. As he sees it, they are stealing our jobs, depressing our wages and even endangering our lives.
That’s where leprosy comes in.
“The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans,” Mr. Dobbs said on his April 14, 2005, program. From there, he introduced his original report that mentioned leprosy, the flesh-destroying disease — technically known as Hansen’s disease — that has inspired fear for centuries.
According to a woman CNN identified as a medical lawyer named Dr. Madeleine Cosman, leprosy was on the march. As Ms. Romans, the CNN correspondent, relayed: “There were about 900 cases of leprosy for 40 years. There have been 7,000 in the past three years.”
“Incredible,” Mr. Dobbs replied.
Mr. Dobbs and Ms. Romans engaged in a nearly identical conversation a few weeks ago, when he was defending himself the night after the “60 Minutes” segment. “Suddenly, in the past three years, America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy,” she said, again attributing the number to Ms. Cosman.
To sort through all this, I called James L. Krahenbuhl, the director of the National Hansen’s Disease Program, an arm of the federal government. Leprosy in the United States is indeed largely a disease of immigrants who have come from Asia and Latin America. And the official leprosy statistics do show about 7,000 diagnosed cases — but that’s over the last 30 years, not the last three.
The peak year was 1983, when there were 456 cases. After that, reported cases dropped steadily, falling to just 76 in 2000. Last year, there were 137.
“It is not a public health problem — that’s the bottom line,” Mr. Krahenbuhl told me. “You’ve got a country of 300 million people. This is not something for the public to get alarmed about.” Much about the disease remains unknown, but researchers think people get it through prolonged close contact with someone who already has it.
What about the increase over the last six years, to 137 cases from 76? Is that significant?
“No,” Mr. Krahenbuhl said. It could be a statistical fluctuation, or it could be a result of better data collection in recent years. In any event, the 137 reported cases last year were fewer than in any year from 1975 to 1996.
So Mr. Dobbs was flat-out wrong. And when I spoke to him yesterday, he admitted as much, sort of. I read him Ms. Romans’s comment — the one with the word “suddenly” in it — and he replied, “I think that is wrong.” He then went on to say that as far as he was concerned, he had corrected the mistake by later broadcasting another report, on the same night as his on-air confrontation with the Southern Poverty Law Center officials. This report mentioned that leprosy had peaked in 1983.
Of course, he has never acknowledged on the air that his program presented false information twice. Instead, he lambasted the officials from the law center for saying he had. Even yesterday, he spent much of our conversation emphasizing that there really were 7,000 cases in the leprosy registry, the government’s 30-year database. Mr. Dobbs is trying to have it both ways.
I have been somewhat taken aback about how shameless he has been during the whole dispute, so I spent some time reading transcripts from old episodes of “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” The way he handled leprosy, it turns out, is not all that unusual.
For one thing, Mr. Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with reality. He has said, for example, that one-third of the inmates in the federal prison system are illegal immigrants. That’s wrong, too. According to the Justice Department, 6 percent of prisoners in this country are noncitizens (compared with 7 percent of the population). For a variety of reasons, the crime rate is actually lower among immigrants than natives.
Second, Mr. Dobbs really does give airtime to white supremacy sympathizers. Ms. Cosman, who is now deceased, was a lawyer and Renaissance studies scholar, never a medical doctor or a leprosy expert. She gave speeches in which she said that Mexican immigrants had a habit of molesting children. Back in their home villages, she would explain, rape was not as serious a crime as cow stealing. The Southern Poverty Law Center keeps a list of other such guests from “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
Finally, Mr. Dobbs is fond of darkly hinting that this country is under attack. He suggested last week that the new immigration bill in Congress could be the first step toward a new nation — a “North American union” — that combines the United States, Canada and Mexico. On other occasions, his program has described a supposed Mexican plot to reclaim the Southwest. In one such report, one of his correspondents referred to a Utah visit by Vicente Fox, then Mexico’s president, as a “Mexican military incursion.”
When I asked Mr. Dobbs about this yesterday, he said, “You’ve raised this to a level that frankly I find offensive.”
The most common complaint about him, at least from other journalists, is that his program combines factual reporting with editorializing. But I think this misses the point. Americans, as a rule, are smart enough to handle a program that mixes opinion and facts. The problem with Mr. Dobbs is that he mixes opinion and untruths. He is the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans.
There is no denying that this country’s immigration system is broken. But it defies belief — and a whole lot of economic research — to suggest that the problems of the middle class stem from illegal immigrants. Those immigrants, remember, are largely non-English speakers without a high school diploma. They have probably hurt the wages of native-born high school dropouts and made everyone else better off.
More to the point, if Mr. Dobbs’s arguments were really so good, don’t you think he would be able to stick to the facts? And if CNN were serious about being “the most trusted name in news,” as it claims to be, don’t you think it would be big enough to issue an actual correction?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonside.html
Robert Caplin for The New York Times
Lou Dobbs was at the anchor desk for CNN’s 2006 election coverage.
Related Articles
Immigrants and Prison (May 30, 2007)
Bush Takes On Conservatives Over Immigration (May 30, 2007)
Reader Responses (May 30, 2007)
Episodes of "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
"60 Minutes" of May 6, 2007 Leprosy Statistics The segment was a profile of Mr. Dobbs, and while doing background research for it, a “60 Minutes” producer came across a 2005 news report from Mr. Dobbs’s CNN program on contagious diseases. In the report, one of Mr. Dobbs’s correspondents said there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far more than in the past.
When Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” sat down to interview Mr. Dobbs on camera, she mentioned the report and told him that there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it.
“Well, I can tell you this,” he replied. “If we reported it, it’s a fact.”
With that Orwellian chestnut, Mr. Dobbs escalated the leprosy dispute into a full-scale media brouhaha. The next night, back on his own program, the same CNN correspondent who had done the earlier report, Christine Romans, repeated the 7,000 number, and Mr. Dobbs added that, if anything, it was probably an underestimate. A week later, the Southern Poverty Law Center — the civil rights group that has long been critical of Mr. Dobbs — took out advertisements in The New York Times and USA Today demanding that CNN run a correction.
Finally, Mr. Dobbs played host to two top officials from the law center on his program, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” where he called their accusations outrageous and they called him wrong, unfair and “one of the most popular people on the white supremacist Web sites.”
We’ll get to the merits of the charges and countercharges shortly, but first it’s worth considering why, beyond entertainment value, all this matters. Over the last few years, Lou Dobbs has transformed himself into arguably this country’s foremost populist. It’s an odd role, given that he spent the 1980s and ’90s buttering up chief executives on CNN, but he’s now playing it very successfully. He has become a voice for the real economic anxiety felt by many Americans.
The audience for his program has grown 72 percent since 2003, and CBS — yes, the same network that broadcasts “60 Minutes” — just hired him as a commentator on “The Early Show.” Many elites, as Mr. Dobbs likes to call them, despise him, but others see him as a hero. His latest book, “War on the Middle Class,” was a best seller and received a sympathetic review in this newspaper. Mario Cuomo has said Mr. Dobbs is “addicted to economic truth.”
Mr. Dobbs argues that the middle class has many enemies: corporate lobbyists, greedy executives, wimpy journalists, corrupt politicians. But none play a bigger role than illegal immigrants. As he sees it, they are stealing our jobs, depressing our wages and even endangering our lives.
That’s where leprosy comes in.
“The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans,” Mr. Dobbs said on his April 14, 2005, program. From there, he introduced his original report that mentioned leprosy, the flesh-destroying disease — technically known as Hansen’s disease — that has inspired fear for centuries.
According to a woman CNN identified as a medical lawyer named Dr. Madeleine Cosman, leprosy was on the march. As Ms. Romans, the CNN correspondent, relayed: “There were about 900 cases of leprosy for 40 years. There have been 7,000 in the past three years.”
“Incredible,” Mr. Dobbs replied.
Mr. Dobbs and Ms. Romans engaged in a nearly identical conversation a few weeks ago, when he was defending himself the night after the “60 Minutes” segment. “Suddenly, in the past three years, America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy,” she said, again attributing the number to Ms. Cosman.
To sort through all this, I called James L. Krahenbuhl, the director of the National Hansen’s Disease Program, an arm of the federal government. Leprosy in the United States is indeed largely a disease of immigrants who have come from Asia and Latin America. And the official leprosy statistics do show about 7,000 diagnosed cases — but that’s over the last 30 years, not the last three.
The peak year was 1983, when there were 456 cases. After that, reported cases dropped steadily, falling to just 76 in 2000. Last year, there were 137.
“It is not a public health problem — that’s the bottom line,” Mr. Krahenbuhl told me. “You’ve got a country of 300 million people. This is not something for the public to get alarmed about.” Much about the disease remains unknown, but researchers think people get it through prolonged close contact with someone who already has it.
What about the increase over the last six years, to 137 cases from 76? Is that significant?
“No,” Mr. Krahenbuhl said. It could be a statistical fluctuation, or it could be a result of better data collection in recent years. In any event, the 137 reported cases last year were fewer than in any year from 1975 to 1996.
So Mr. Dobbs was flat-out wrong. And when I spoke to him yesterday, he admitted as much, sort of. I read him Ms. Romans’s comment — the one with the word “suddenly” in it — and he replied, “I think that is wrong.” He then went on to say that as far as he was concerned, he had corrected the mistake by later broadcasting another report, on the same night as his on-air confrontation with the Southern Poverty Law Center officials. This report mentioned that leprosy had peaked in 1983.
Of course, he has never acknowledged on the air that his program presented false information twice. Instead, he lambasted the officials from the law center for saying he had. Even yesterday, he spent much of our conversation emphasizing that there really were 7,000 cases in the leprosy registry, the government’s 30-year database. Mr. Dobbs is trying to have it both ways.
I have been somewhat taken aback about how shameless he has been during the whole dispute, so I spent some time reading transcripts from old episodes of “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” The way he handled leprosy, it turns out, is not all that unusual.
For one thing, Mr. Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with reality. He has said, for example, that one-third of the inmates in the federal prison system are illegal immigrants. That’s wrong, too. According to the Justice Department, 6 percent of prisoners in this country are noncitizens (compared with 7 percent of the population). For a variety of reasons, the crime rate is actually lower among immigrants than natives.
Second, Mr. Dobbs really does give airtime to white supremacy sympathizers. Ms. Cosman, who is now deceased, was a lawyer and Renaissance studies scholar, never a medical doctor or a leprosy expert. She gave speeches in which she said that Mexican immigrants had a habit of molesting children. Back in their home villages, she would explain, rape was not as serious a crime as cow stealing. The Southern Poverty Law Center keeps a list of other such guests from “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
Finally, Mr. Dobbs is fond of darkly hinting that this country is under attack. He suggested last week that the new immigration bill in Congress could be the first step toward a new nation — a “North American union” — that combines the United States, Canada and Mexico. On other occasions, his program has described a supposed Mexican plot to reclaim the Southwest. In one such report, one of his correspondents referred to a Utah visit by Vicente Fox, then Mexico’s president, as a “Mexican military incursion.”
When I asked Mr. Dobbs about this yesterday, he said, “You’ve raised this to a level that frankly I find offensive.”
The most common complaint about him, at least from other journalists, is that his program combines factual reporting with editorializing. But I think this misses the point. Americans, as a rule, are smart enough to handle a program that mixes opinion and facts. The problem with Mr. Dobbs is that he mixes opinion and untruths. He is the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans.
There is no denying that this country’s immigration system is broken. But it defies belief — and a whole lot of economic research — to suggest that the problems of the middle class stem from illegal immigrants. Those immigrants, remember, are largely non-English speakers without a high school diploma. They have probably hurt the wages of native-born high school dropouts and made everyone else better off.
More to the point, if Mr. Dobbs’s arguments were really so good, don’t you think he would be able to stick to the facts? And if CNN were serious about being “the most trusted name in news,” as it claims to be, don’t you think it would be big enough to issue an actual correction?
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