To the editor,

Goodbye Lou,

On November 11 Lou Dobbs, a CNN anchor for 30 years, announced his immediate retirement from the network. Mr. Dobbs is an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration while supporting legal immigration. Lou’s position concerning the issue of illegal immigration has drawn the ire of many people. One of Lou’s harshest critics is Geraldo Rivera of Fox News Corporation.

Geraldo habitually complains that Lou Dobbs slanders Latinos on a regular basis. Geraldo says Mr. Dobbs is a racist that resurrected his career on the backs of immigrants and is single-handedly responsible for the prejudice towards Latinos that supposedly exist within the United States.

What Geraldo doesn’t mention is his feelings about a government that practices true prejudice against Latinos. Mr. Rivera does not speak of the government that deports over 90% of the illegal aliens that cross the southern border every year. Geraldo remains silent when that government sentences illegal aliens to 10 year prison terms for entering the country illegally a second time.

How does Mr. Rivera feel about the government that sentences immigrants to six years imprisonment for overstaying a legal visa or imprisons a natural citizen for five years for marrying an illegal alien for the purposes of keeping that alien in the country?

I doubt Geraldo will ever speak of the stringent immigration laws of Mexico. Instead he will spend his time and efforts trying to discredit a news personality that reports the true facts about illegal immigrants and the negative impact they are having on the economic and social structure of our country.

Mr. Dobbs is correct when he states illegal aliens send almost $20 billion to Mexico every year. Money sent by illegal aliens in the United States to family members in Mexico is that countries 2nd largest source of income, second only to the exporting of oil which generates $24 billion per year.

A 2005 report by Bear Stearns proves Mr. Dobbs correct when he states the true estimate of the number of illegal aliens in the United States to be close to 20 million. The cost of educating, incarcerating and caring for these aliens is projected to be almost $62 billion in 2010 and increases to $150 billion by 2020.

Mr. Dobbs was a popular news anchor but there is no way he alone could be responsible for the attitudes of the majority of the American public. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll demonstrates 74% of Americans believe the U. S. Government is not doing enough to control the southern border while 63% believe securing the border is more important than legalizing undocumented workers. 67% of Americans believe law enforcement should conduct raids in places illegal immigrants are known to gather.

Mr. Rivera was involved in a much publicized heated exchange with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor”. At one point during the exchange Geraldo accused people like Lou Dobbs of wanting to take immigrants “out back and shoot them”. Yet it was Lou Dobbs and his family that was fired upon, I do not believe Lou Dobbs ever shot at an illegal alien. I have never heard Mr. Dobbs differentiate between Latinos or the 1.5 million non-Hispanic people that are in the United States illegally. Mr. Rivera’s own biases and prejudices are on display when he assumes Lou Dobbs speaks only of Latinos.

I say I will miss Lou Dobbs and his nightly broadcast. I cannot say the same will be true when Geraldo fades from everyone’s memory.

Carl Goodson lives in Clute, TX, a suburb of Houston. Mr. Goodson can be contacted at conservativeCarl@gmail.com.