Lou Dobbs Interview with Rep. Myrick about Immigration Bills
October 17, 2005

DOBBS: My next guest is taking action trying to fight our nation's border crisis. Congresswoman Sue Myrick has introduced legislation that would mandate any illegal alien convicted of drunk driving be deported from this country immediately. Her bill is named after the late Scott Gardner, one of her constituents.  The 33-year-old North Carolina teacher was killed this summer by a drunk driver who was also an illegal alien. The same illegal alien was convicted of drunk driving numerous times before the fatal accident.  But state law enforcement was not required to notify immigration officials of the arrest and the charges. That would change under Congresswoman Myrick's legislation. She joins us tonight from Capitol Hill.  

Congresswoman, let me ask you, just straightforwardly, what kind of reception are you having to this bill, and how absurd is that we even should at this stage need such legislation?

REP. SUE MYRICK (R), NORTH CAROLINA: Well, there is a huge interest on Capitol Hill for doing something about immigration. And it's way past due. And with our bill, simply, we're saying that local and state law enforcement would receive training, which there's money in homeland security to do, so they could understand the immigration law and help us, and also enter these names into a federal database. There's an FBI database and a Customs database. It's available, but they aren't being used by local and state law enforcement. That's part of the problem, the man who killed the illegal alien, who killed Scott Gardner, had four DWIs and nobody knew it.

DOBBS: It's an extraordinary thing. It's mind-boggling that local law enforcement would not be aware of those convictions and that action would not be taken, irrespective of whether the person was an illegal alien or not.

MYRICK: Correct.

DOBBS: Now, you've moved forward with the 10k Run for the Border Act, in which you're going to put penalties on the demand size, that is raise fines for $10,000 for people who employ illegal aliens in this country. What do you think the prospects are for you to succeed with that legislation in Congress?

MYRICK: Well, I don't know, but we're sure going to do everything we can to succeed. Because 80 percent of that money, of the 10,000, is going to go back to the local law enforcement agency. So that will encourage them and give them the resources to do more.

And you know, we need grassroots help on this. I've actually created a Web site that's called www.securingourstate.com. And we encourage people to go on it for action items of the things that they can do something about, the people to contact on the national level and make a difference, because pressure has to be put to bear.

DOBBS: Why is it that our Congress, and congresswoman, I certainly -- I can appreciate it if you have difficulty with this question, because you are obviously representing your constituents on the issue of immigration. But why aren't our elected officials, particularly your colleagues in Congress, representing the working men and women of this country and their interests?

MYRICK: Well, actually, it's going to happen. We were supposed to deal with this in September. Our leadership has said it would be on the able. Katrina moved everything back. So we're doing it in November. We will have some tough immigration bills on the floor, and of course, I'm working hard to make sure these are part of it.

DOBBS: Congresswoman Myrick, we thank you very much for being with us.

MYRICK: You're welcome.

DOBBS: Congresswoman Sue Myrick.