Research support for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. In Lou Dobbs's heyday at CNN, when he commanded more than 800,000 viewers and a reported $6 million a year for "his fearless reporting and commentary," in the words of former CNN president Jonathan Klein, the host became notorious for his angry rants against "illegal aliens." But Dobbs reserved a special venom for the employers who hire them, railing against "the employer who is so shamelessly exploiting the illegal alien and so shamelessly flouting US law" and even proposing, on one April 2006 show, that "illegal employers who hire illegal aliens" should face felony charges.
Undocumented workers are so thoroughly woven into the fabric of our economy that even two professional immigrant-bashers, Lou Dobbs and Meg Whitman, found it difficult to avoid relying on their labor.
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Since he left CNN last November, after Latino groups mounted a protest campaign against his inflammatory rhetoric, Dobbs has continued to advocate an enforcement-first approach to immigration, emphasizing, as he did in a March 2010 interview on Univision, that "the illegal employer is the central issue in this entire mess!"
His scheduled October 9 address at the Virginia Tea Party Convention will mark his second major Tea Party address of the year, reviving questions about whether the former CNN host is gearing up for an electoral campaign. He recently told Fox's Sean Hannity that he has not ruled out a possible Senate or even presidential run in 2012.
But with his relentless diatribes against "illegals" and their employers, Dobbs is casting stones from a house—make that an estate—of glass. Based on a yearlong investigation, including interviews with five immigrants who worked without papers on his properties, The Nation and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute have found that Dobbs 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.
Dobbs lives in a sprawling white mansion on his 300-acre estate in Sussex, New Jersey, where he and his family run a horse farm. In 2005 he acquired another house—a spacious multimillion-dollar winter holiday home in Eagle Isle, the most exclusive enclave of the Ibis Golf and Country Club, a gated community in West Palm Beach, Florida. It offers his daughter a place to stay during her competitions at the Wellington Winter Equestrian Festival, one of the most important events in the horse show world.
Dobbs's daughter keeps five European Warmbloods, a breed that often fetches close to $1 million apiece. In the official results of her competitions, her horses' owner is always listed as The Dobbs Group—a corporate entity for which few details are available on the public record. However, incorporation documents and other state records reveal it to be a New Jersey company of which Lou Dobbs is president. This same company also owns the copyright on Dobbs's books.
The upkeep of Dobbs's multiple properties creates no small demand for labor in two sectors where undocumented immigrants are known to be particularly prevalent. Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council, the horse industry's main lobby group, suggested in 2009 that more than half of the workers in his industry are likely undocumented. Likewise, studies have found that undocumented workers make up an estimated 28 percent of workers in landscaping. In both of these sectors, the use of contractors is commonplace, so it is not surprising that Dobbs has relied on third parties to supply the labor he needs. Vicky Moon, author of A Sunday Horse: Inside the Grand Prix Show-Jumping Circuit, explained that contracting out the care of one's horses "alleviates the time involved in coordinating the horses' care, transport, and management but it also removes the responsibility of hiring competent grooms, providing housing and meals, possibly paying Social Security taxes, health insurance and, most important, making extra sure they are legal."
Dobbs has heaped scorn on the government for using contractors that hire undocumented immigrants. On CNN in 2007, he called private firms that oppose verification requirements for their contractors' employees "ridiculous." Yet interviews with several such employees show that Dobbs has been far from vigilant about the status of workers laboring on his own properties.
"I Looked After Dobbs's Horses While I Was Illegal"
This year, Hillary Dobbs became the youngest-ever horse show rider to win $1 million in prize money. While all horses require extensive maintenance, the labor entailed in the upkeep of competition horses like the ones ridden by "Dobbs's million dollar baby" (as the New York Post dubbed Hillary) is particularly strenuous.
Every November, all five of The Dobbs Group's show-jumping horses must be transported from their summer stables in Vermont to their winter stables in Wellington, Florida. The workers are transported to the tropics too, returning to New England with the horses in April. They ride in trucks each way alongside their expensive equestrian charges, tending to the horses' needs throughout the thirty-two-hour journey. Their return to Vermont marks the start of a new annual circuit of horse shows—an exhausting schedule during the spring, summer and fall months that entails constant travel between their Vermont base and horse shows around the country. At these shows, it is not unusual for the grooms who care for Dobbs's horses to rise in the middle of the night or in the predawn hours to clean, brush and prepare the horses for a training session or early morning competition.
For years, undocumented immigrants from Mexico have been relied upon to meet these labor demands.
A 36-year-old Mexican immigrant I'll call Marco Salinas was working with a group of horses in a stable at the bustling Wellington Winter Equestrian Festival when I approached him for an interview. (Fearing deportation or job loss, Salinas, like the other workers interviewed for this story, asked that neither his real name nor the name of his employer be used.) Several hours later, when he finished his ten-hour workday, Salinas recounted how he had come to the United States five years ago for a job. Seated on an outdoor bench near the stable, the Mexico City native told the story of how he had crossed the Yuma Desert on foot, from the Mexican city of San Luis Río Colorado and into the United States, eluding the border patrol.
Salinas said he braved the journey for one reason—because he had the promise of a job on the other end. An old friend of Salinas's worked as a groom with some of the horses owned by Dobbs, and he had sent word that Salinas could be hired on as a groom at the Vermont stable contracted to care for the Dobbs Group horses.
Salinas got the job, he said, and worked at it for more than two years without documents until he was finally able to obtain a guest-worker visa designed for seasonal foreign workers (the same kind of visa denounced as a form of "indentured servitude" on Dobbs's CNN show).
I asked Salinas, still clad in his work clothes—a polo shirt and jeans—about Dobbs, the owner of the horses he cared for. But the father of three simply flashed a disarming grin, let out an easygoing laugh and politely declined to comment.
In his work as a groom for Dobbs's horses, Salinas said he regularly started at 5 am and did not get off until after 6 in the evening. According to Pedro Gomez, another undocumented worker, who cared for Dobbs Group horses in Vermont and Florida, the workday during horse shows like the three-month-long Wellington Winter Equestrian Festival was typically twelve hours or longer.
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To those Americans who support the idea of giving rights to those who enter this country illegally.I urge you to enter any other country in the world in the same fashion and espouse your ideology and let me know how it works out. Those who enter our country illegally have no rights. There is a legal way to immigrate to the US and they need to respect our laws.The story should have been about the company who is breaking the law.
THIS IS CLEARLY A HATE SPEECH INDUCED THREAT! Lou Dobbs is just the target!
Thanks Isabel. Unfortunately, Lou and his ilk will justify to the end their hypocrisy: I didn't knowingly, I didn't break any laws, how could I have known, it's illegal for me to ask, the problem is at the border...unbelievable.
Lou is revisionism gone wrong. He breaks out the new Lou; just looking for answers and then goes right back to blaming immigrants.
Lou is a disgusting human being.
Lou Dobbs flipped-flopped last night on the show (The Last Word) when he used the word "HUMANE IMMIGRATION REFORM." This is what he never used when he was on CNN. He was always using words such as deportation, imprison, chase, criminals, illegal, nonsense people, stupid, Mexican illegals, etc. These are the words he used on CNN to describe undocumented immigrants. He is now beginning to see the light.
Lou Dobbs no just a hypocrite but demagogue who uses the illegal immigration issue to further his credential as a defender of working Americans' rights. While in the other hand lining his pockets with wads from illegals cheap labor force.
Having made his fortune with this issue, Dobbs should have been scrupulous in checking (or having his attorneys check) the status of every person who ever worked for him, directly or indirectly. He was careless in not foreseeing the possibility of an investigation like this one, but otherwise no better or worse than any other American whose contractors, unbeknownst to him, hired undocumented workers. A lot of us would prefer our money not go to illegals but can't avoid it as long as somebody, somewhere in America is hiring them.
The debate from last night on MSNBC / The Last Word was insightful. As the author stated, there is a huge problem, one that affects all of us. If you ask a firm if all their employees are legal, is accepting a "yes" sufficient? That will be the answer from those who want to ignore the problem of illegal immigration.
As Lou Dobbs made himself the poster boy for being against Illegal Immigrants, then should he hold himself to a higher standard? As he is trying to make policy, then I would think yes.
Unfortunately, we see this all the time. GOPer's talking about sanctity of marriage and then "apologize" when outed for an affair / hooker - whatever.
Sorry, but if you can't walk the walk, then quit with the talk.
Does the US have a problem? YES. Is it new? NO This debate is kicked down the road because the politics are making it impossible. Will Congress ever reconcile to make a decision that will actually make sense? I doubt it, the GOP won't even consider legitimizing children who were brought here as infants and can add to the improvement of our country. Instead, they say that these children are stealing - like they and their parents have not been paying taxes for their entire lives.
Instead, I doubt this will be anything other than a political football for decades more.
"Ms MacDonald is guilty of really bad journalism including guilt by inuendo, (sic) guilt by uncorroborated testimony, and unsubstantiated conclusions."
I usually let rightists gripes go unrewarded, but really, the problem here is not journalism OR fairness. Mr. Dobbs is accused of hypocrisy, not law-breaking. He has made good money by setting a high standard and has been caught not adhering to it. That's all.
There are people I see almost every day at restaurants and other types of jobs I suspect are in this country illegally. Just as I would be suspicious of little green men with antennae being aliens, I zero in on people who look like they are "not from around here." It would not take a Sherlock Holmes to point out that many people from Australia, Europe, Canada, etc. would escape my suspicion. All I can do is assume the government is doing its job and mind my own business.
Many industries follow industry standards and best practices such as ISO, ANSI, ETSI, IEEE, SAE, etc. Some standards are voluntary and some are required by law such as FISMA, Sarbanes/Oxley, FDA standards and NHTSA. If the federal government continues to drag its feet on secure social security cards and other documents used to prevent fraud, then voluntary standards and practices can be established for verification. Some voluntary standards can become mandatory when the benefit of the standard is realized.
Companies adhering to the best practice standard for employee verification can be audited for compliance and obtain the certification. There can be levels of certification as in the case for not using E-Verify. Companies and individuals can look for the certification and decide if they want to do business with the company or individual. Self-employed individuals can also become certified.
People should only hire companies and individuals who are bonded, licensed and insured... 10. posted by: revlarryrob at 10/08/2010 @ 4:25pm
It seems we have a whole new wave of moronic leftists posting today who like most leftists care nothing for the facts. Ms MacDonald is guilty of really bad journalism including guilt by inuendo, guilt by uncorroborated testimony, and unsubstantiated conclusions. But that is the level of sophistry and bad judgment we have come to expect from the left.
Last night, when Lou Dobbs proclaimed the facts, he used the standard that he, personally, did not directly hire undocumented workers and so, did nothing wrong. That is the same standard that most of us use. His public standard, however, is much more severe and has propelled him to a height where he can see the White House from his bedroom. Mr. Dobbs is listed at the Washington Speakers Bureau with a Fee Code of 6, which specifies $40,000 and up. Two engagements will earn him more than the average American family earns in a year. I believe that explains his public standard. After all, if he just proposed what we all do anyway, who would pay? As to what explains his hubris, perhaps he listens to the sound of his own melodious voice before he goes to sleep each night. With pipes like that, who needs anything else?
Lou Dobbs is a big hypocrite. Finally someone called him on it. He has spent years spewing his hatred for the immigration problems and demonizing undocumented workers as the problem in America. I am so glad that Isabel MacDonald exposed this guy for what he really is. Ms. MacDonald is a true American hero. Maybe Lou Dobbs will be more careful with his ridiculous rhetoric now that he knows somebody just by check his backyard. Kudos to the author for great journalism.
When you hire a company or service to perform work for you you expect that the company has checked out their employees. When you hire an individual it is your responsibility to check their status. Dobbs is clearly the employer and has that responsibility. But then if illegal immigration is such a hot button with righties why are so many trying to defend Dobbs when he has clearly broken the law? Hum. Interesting. Could it be Dobbs isn't the only hypocrite here?
It is heartening to see this old windbag hoisted with his own petard. Ditto with Whitman.
Americans can never maintain their standard of living without cheap labor - ergo, an undocumented underclass is essential to the well-being of increasingly obese, under-educated, and whiny American population that feels entitled to borrow money from one third-world country (China), while exploiting the labors of others from Central America.
The problem people are primarily 3rd generation and up Americans who didn't succeed and feel that something is owed them. These whiny ones, the tea baggers for example, are losers who do not want to work. They're easy pickings for rich politicians who have a vested interest in keeping them fat and ignorant, and in keeping the labor force illegal.
Nice article. We're all guilty, whether we own horses or shop at the neighborhood grocery store.
So, it's Un-American to make the demand "papers please!" but when somebody hires a roofer or lawnmowing service and that company hires illegal aliens then we should arrest the homeowner for exploiting them?
Never mind. The way the economy is going, there won't be much of a demand for them anyhow. Nobody is going to pay for work on an abandoned, foreclosed home built in a hurricane flood zone with a mortgage in the Fannie Mae portfolio.
What - no mention of Bruce Springsteen's daughter's very expensive show jumping and equitation horses, and the people who care for them? Glenn Close's daughter's? Bloomberg's daughter's? Sure, Lou Dobbs has spent a lot of air time talking about how our immigration system is broken. Newsflash to author of hit-job article - our immigration system is broken! No one, not even you, Macdonald, can account for every employee's status of every company you have ever hired, contracted with, or purchased a good or service from. THAT should be the point - our system is broken, and none of us can truly know who is here legally! Secure the borders and then put a system in place which allows people desiring work to come in and work in a documented, orderly fashion. Why not get over your breathlessness like you've just discovered something new and actually examine some solutions to the immigration problem. Sorry, that wouldn't be as much fun as an hysterical rant about something that is old news! (and carefully excludes people with same issue like Springsteen)
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