Lou Dobbs Tonight Transcript:

DOBBS: The border protection anti-terrorism and illegal immigration control act requires all employers to verify employees Social Security numbers. Congressman Pete King co-authored the legislation with Congressman James Sensenbrenner. And Congressman King joins us now from Capitol Hill. Mr. Chairman, good to have you with us.

REP. PETE KING (R), NEW YORK: Lou, good to be with you, as always.

DOBBS: The idea that we must secure the borders, is it taking hold in Congress, or give us some sense of the games being played on Capitol Hill?

KING: Well, there's a lot of games being played, and I still don't think it's caught hold in the Senate. They want to use this term, you know, immigration reform. And their idea of immigration reform is to, you know, throw a few faints or a few nods toward border security, but they're not really serious about it.

At the same time, the way we get rid of 10 or 11 million illegal immigrants is to declare temperature legal, and that is considered a reform. And I'm not really being sarcastic when I say that, I mean that.

What they're going to do is basically 10 of the 11 million illegal immigrants, I think the Senate is going to come up with legislation which is going to legalize them and it's going to lead towards citizenship.

And if that's not amnesty, I don't what else you would call it. So I think there's a real disconnect between the American people on the one hand and the mainstream media and the senators on the other.

DOBBS: But there's a real connect for the Democratic Party and the Republican Party from corporate America, who desperately wants the cheap labor, isn't there?

KING: Absolutely. The Democrats in particular are appealing to special interests. The Republicans in many cases are caving into corporate America. They want the cheap labor. I see it, I get letters and notices from business associations all over the country. And they -- they want that cheap labor.

And not only is it cheap labor for the people that they are hiring, that also, then, brings down the wages of legal employees that are here, so it's a big plus, a big plus in the short term for corporate America. In the end, all of us pay when you get away with something cheaply.

DOBBS: And we're all paying. Taxpayers, hard-working men and women in this country and their families are paying right now for so much of illegal immigration. Employers are benefiting through profits by exploiting that cheap labor. But the pain is significant. The frustration is high.

Congressman, what would you say if I said to you that if Hastert, Sensenbrenner, King, the leadership of the House don't have the guts to put border security ahead of this weak-kneed Senate which has got the audacity to stand up in front of the American people and lie to them about comprehensive, as they style it -- that the White House and in the Senate, comprehensive immigration reform.

What would you say, if based on our response to this broadcast, and our series of broadcasts on illegal immigration, that House Republicans are the ones who are going to pay the price for their gamesmanship?

KING: If we went that route, we should pay the price. I have made an absolute commitment. I will never support any legislation, and I would not sign my name to any conference report which calls for legalizing in any way, any of those 11 or 12 million that are here now illegally.

If we do that, it's just going to be a magnet for more illegal immigrants to come across the border and we can have all the border security we want. But if people think, if illegals think they are going to get amnesty ultimately by coming here, they are going to get across that border one way or the other.

So to me, it would be absolutely wrong and we should pay the price for that. There's no excuse. If the Republican Party doesn't stand up for controlling the borders, I don't know what we're here in Congress to be.

DOBBS: Congressman Pete King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, good to have you with us.

KING: Lou, thank you, it's always a pleasure.