Magazine Rips Lou Dobbs For 'Hypocrisy' On Illegal Immigration; Dobbs Set To Respond On Show

Lou Dobbs

An article in the liberal magazine THE NATION charges that LOU DOBBS, who has been outspoken in opposing illegal immigration, has used third-party contractors to care for his horses and NEW JERSEY and FLORIDA estates who have in turn employed illegal immigrants.

The article, by ISABEL MCDONALD, calls DOBBS a "hypocrite" for criticizing employers who hire illegal immigrants while he "has relied for years on undocumented labor for the upkeep of his multimillion-dollar estates and the horses he keeps for his 22-year-old daughter, HILLARY, a champion show jumper." The horses are stabled in VERMONT with a third-party operator who, the article alleges, has employed illegal immigrants, and at a FLORIDA stable that also allegedly used illegal help, including one man, MARCO ESPERANZA, who told THE NATION that he "looked after DOBBS' horses while I was illegal." Another man, PEDRO GOMEZ, who says he cared for the horses, alleged that DOBBS' daughter knew that some workers "disn't have papers" and had taken precautions to keep them away from immigration agents.

In the article, MISSY CLARK, owner of NORTH RUN FARM in VERMONT, where the DOBBS family's horses are stabled, said that "the people taking care of the horses are 100% legal" and that she had assured the DOBBS family of that but had encountered difficulty obtaining work visas for some of her employees. An attorney for CLARK's company said that another law firm previously hired to obtain the visas had failed to deliver on the promise and had gone out of business, but that visas were filed for in JUNE 2009 and obtained three months later.

DOBBS was scheduled to be away from his UNITED STATIONS RADIO NETWORKS show TODAY (10/7) while with his daughter and newborn grandchild, but did the show from his home studio to respond to THE NATION's allegations. On his show, DOBBS sparred with MCDONALD and denied hiring undocumented workers, asking MCDONALD point blank whether she found that he or his companies had hired illegal immigrants; after trying not to answer the question directly, she eventually agreed that he had not directly hired undocumented workers.  He also said that he had asked the horse trainers to make sure their workers were documented and was assured that they were.  "Every one of (the people working with the horses) is legal," DOBBS said.  He also denied allegations in the article that landscapers were working illegal 10-hour days on his property for low wages, pointing out that the landscaping contractors are paid to do their work quickly.

DOBBS will also appear on "THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O'DONNELL" on MSNBC and ABC's "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" TOMORROW (10/8).

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