nkavjs
09-19 01:31 PM
Did you by any chance speculated to him that application might be in TSC based on LUD on I140?
When he was noting down all my info, I mentioned about LUD on my I-140 (approved) for 8-5-07 and he said.. it does mean anything since they still need to mail applicants receipts no matter what stage is your application is processed under.
When he was noting down all my info, I mentioned about LUD on my I-140 (approved) for 8-5-07 and he said.. it does mean anything since they still need to mail applicants receipts no matter what stage is your application is processed under.
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abhijitp
07-09 08:34 PM
Why is everybody so happy? He has just briefly and curtly informed in the message that flowers will be forwarded. They won't be sitting on my desk and embarrasing me. There is no acknowledgement of the issue or any empathy or compassion with the sufferers. Now even the press coverage will make USCIS director look good. I don't see what's the positive development here.
They probably tried to pass the irritant to someone else. If USCIS continues receiving flowers, and therefore passing them on, one day even the soldiers will say "No thanks!". Then they will pass them on to someone else. But for how long?
I think this campaign will NOT lose its effect-- as long as we are persistent. Ideally, we should continue sending flowers at least so long as it does not become a MUCH talked about issue in the print and radio and TV media. My humble opinion.
They probably tried to pass the irritant to someone else. If USCIS continues receiving flowers, and therefore passing them on, one day even the soldiers will say "No thanks!". Then they will pass them on to someone else. But for how long?
I think this campaign will NOT lose its effect-- as long as we are persistent. Ideally, we should continue sending flowers at least so long as it does not become a MUCH talked about issue in the print and radio and TV media. My humble opinion.
royus77
06-29 02:12 PM
I read somewhere in the forum that one guy contacted USCIS regarding I-140 PP and he was told by USCIS representative that they honor Postmark date. If USCIS honors Postmark date not the receive date they one must be careful sending application on June 29th.
Edit/Delete Message
I think the classis example of April 1 2007 . If that was true USICS might have to reject 1,30,0000 petitions .Received date is important .
Edit/Delete Message
I think the classis example of April 1 2007 . If that was true USICS might have to reject 1,30,0000 petitions .Received date is important .
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snathan
09-23 05:06 PM
If these are pending 485 applications at USCIS, Number of pending applications with PD later than JUL 2007 should be zero.
If these are labor filings, they probably dont include dependents.
What if its RD and not PD...?
If these are labor filings, they probably dont include dependents.
What if its RD and not PD...?
more...
number30
09-24 08:12 PM
Lot of analysis. Here is my part. If DOS properly followed the INA as amended by AC21 act in 2000, EB2-I never retrogressed since year 2005. EB2 I might have been always �current�. EB3 including ROW might have been much worst situation than now. EB3-IN will always be in disaster state. Though it is unfair to (EB3) many, this is what the law. In later part of 1990s EB categories were retrogressed for IN, CH by about 2 years. When AC21 law passed in 2000, it did two very important things. One recapture of about 216,000 EB visas and it removed country quota in each EB category if excess visas available, in that category. That means it enforced horizontal spill over. In simple example, consider Mexico which is most subscribing country. Lets assume in a fiscal year, 40,000 Mexican are eligible for EB2 visa(and no other citizens in EB2), and millions of Mexican eligible for EB3 and in family based categories, still DOS should issue 40,000 EB2 visa to Mexicans irrespective of how much demand in other categories. Because of tons of backlogs in 485 (between 2000 and 2004), particularly in EB3, DOS issued about 185000 (out of 216000) to EB3. That�s why EB3 was current between 2000 and 2004. They simply ignored the EB2 demand by India and retrogressed in 2005, though total demand for EB2 less than the available pool of recaptured visas. Since the year 2007, they realized the mistake and now (since 2007) they are following correctly (though may not fair) the law. If they follow correctly the law, EB2-IN, Ch will become current soon. Till all EB2 become current, EB3 never see any spill over. Till EB3 �ROW become current, EB3 IN will not see any spill over. Till that point EB3-In will get only 2800 EB3 visas.
Numbers made available from AC21 was the only initial reason to become current. Later after 2001-Sept until 2002- October ( TSC until March 2003) no EB I-485 were approved. Only the cases either transfered to local office or consular processing were getting Approval. It was weird situation because no numbers were getting used hence all numbers were available. So it remained current until 2004. Otherwise it would have been retrogressed by 2003 itself.
Numbers made available from AC21 was the only initial reason to become current. Later after 2001-Sept until 2002- October ( TSC until March 2003) no EB I-485 were approved. Only the cases either transfered to local office or consular processing were getting Approval. It was weird situation because no numbers were getting used hence all numbers were available. So it remained current until 2004. Otherwise it would have been retrogressed by 2003 itself.
shree772000
11-07 10:31 AM
Are we seeing any kind of response to our letters in this matter? I would be very interested to know if they are responding in any way....
Please share if you have any info regarding that.
Please share if you have any info regarding that.
more...
reno_john
06-29 04:44 PM
I always thought, the system was fair, it was only the overwhelming numbers of immigrants from certain countries that made it look unfair....but the closer I get to the stage where DOS decisions start impacting me, the more I realize that the system is not fair at all. The game of visa numbers and allocations is driven by white house politics alone...DOS being the spokesperson for the politics. Essentially the white house is directly throttling immigration through the DOS...on its own whims and fancy.
I wouldn't say they are cruel, but they are certainly selfish..and are bent on sucking the blood of would be immigrants/working non-immigrants...the best way to prevent this from happening is to not come here....let the Indians/Chinese completely stop coming here on H1s/L1s and then we'll see how far can America fly...
So, what made you import yourself here? You could have stayed back in your own country..by the way, coming on a H4 was a choice..it wasn't forced upon you...didn't you know before coming here that you would have to stay home on a H4? H4->F1, H4->H1...all these options are always open to you..
America will fly even higher with or without India and chinese those days are gone, look into the future. In the past not many american used to take science and Technology filed but now its different.
I wouldn't say they are cruel, but they are certainly selfish..and are bent on sucking the blood of would be immigrants/working non-immigrants...the best way to prevent this from happening is to not come here....let the Indians/Chinese completely stop coming here on H1s/L1s and then we'll see how far can America fly...
So, what made you import yourself here? You could have stayed back in your own country..by the way, coming on a H4 was a choice..it wasn't forced upon you...didn't you know before coming here that you would have to stay home on a H4? H4->F1, H4->H1...all these options are always open to you..
America will fly even higher with or without India and chinese those days are gone, look into the future. In the past not many american used to take science and Technology filed but now its different.
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justin150377
07-09 08:48 PM
Imagine how insulted the soldiers will feel when they read the cards/notes with the flowers...they won't be pleased they were caught in the middle of a controversy. They have enough to deal with already. This will make the government look even worse.
more...
ivar
08-20 10:47 AM
Dear IV friends,
One news, call to india free for 24.99 from vonage plan starts today.
Thanks.
One news, call to india free for 24.99 from vonage plan starts today.
Thanks.
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hpandey
01-24 12:07 PM
As I said before, I am never going to fly thru UK, even though I sill have a transit visa valid till Nov 2008. I can still feel the pain.
Yeah I would say get a direct flight to India via Continental or whatever else is available ( AIR INDIA would not be anyone's preference I guess ) rather than going through these idiotic countries.
Yeah I would say get a direct flight to India via Continental or whatever else is available ( AIR INDIA would not be anyone's preference I guess ) rather than going through these idiotic countries.
more...
wandmaker
08-07 09:40 AM
Ths poll should be changed to
Do you want to turn into an anti-immigrant when you get your greencard?
Yes I am in
No I am out
Shame on those who votes yes.
We said
Do you want to turn into an anti-immigrant when you get your greencard?
Yes I am in
No I am out
Shame on those who votes yes.
We said
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pani_6
08-21 10:18 PM
Yes..OCT bullettin holds the key to EB-3..if its bacck logged..then EB-3 call SOS and port to EB-2..none else will work
I have read it in Ron Gotcher's forum that what Sept bulletin talked about was only for Mexico and people should not mix it with EB-3 India. Also Apr'2001 was the PD given to the asylum(245i) cases by the Clinton administration. But with dates moving to Nov'2001 I believe that hump have gone past. My personal belief is EB-3 India should go around Jun-2002. But In case it remains in 2001, EB-3 Indians should take some drastic decisions. You may call me pessimist but I don't see any help coming from the congress, rather there could be some weird irrational decisions which could leave us paralysed. There are more foes than friends in the congress and lawmakers do what there pupil tells them to do. Right now the under current in US is anti immigrant..
I have read it in Ron Gotcher's forum that what Sept bulletin talked about was only for Mexico and people should not mix it with EB-3 India. Also Apr'2001 was the PD given to the asylum(245i) cases by the Clinton administration. But with dates moving to Nov'2001 I believe that hump have gone past. My personal belief is EB-3 India should go around Jun-2002. But In case it remains in 2001, EB-3 Indians should take some drastic decisions. You may call me pessimist but I don't see any help coming from the congress, rather there could be some weird irrational decisions which could leave us paralysed. There are more foes than friends in the congress and lawmakers do what there pupil tells them to do. Right now the under current in US is anti immigrant..
more...
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bitzbytz
03-29 05:18 PM
Thanks to IV for getting this done
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vbkris77
05-09 03:09 PM
When confronted with facts, like a typical "skilled" indian, our man ganguteli resorts to the following
a) Stereotyping
b) Evading the questions, starts dragging in the irrelevant stuff, be it madoff or american prison system
Hey ganguteli, if you are so concerned with the law and order system in US, why don't you go back to your "arsha-bharata"? I am sure that in India incarceration is very low because lot of criminals don't go to prison, instead they rise in politics like your leaders Advani, Modi , Laloo etc. (who would have languished in a prison in any other civilized country) and become prime-minister material. :D :D
Or are you planning to pratice some white-collar crime/fraud here after getting the coveted GC - like starting a "consulting company" to import indentured servants at dirt cheap prices? :D :D
Ganguteli, I must say you have proven that in this thread itself, with irrelevant, off-topic responses. :p
Hey mind your business. You don't know a thing about India and I am sure you wouldn't have even visited once in your lifetime. If you have problem with individuals, companies, sue them find legal ways to stop their wrong doing. It is good for everyone. Dishonesty is not a patent of any country. You show me 10 corrupt people from India, I will show you 100 from UK, 100 from USA and 100 from Japan.. Don't blabber about things you don't know in a public forum. I am taking offense of what you wrote.. You owe an apology to India and people from that country in this forum..
a) Stereotyping
b) Evading the questions, starts dragging in the irrelevant stuff, be it madoff or american prison system
Hey ganguteli, if you are so concerned with the law and order system in US, why don't you go back to your "arsha-bharata"? I am sure that in India incarceration is very low because lot of criminals don't go to prison, instead they rise in politics like your leaders Advani, Modi , Laloo etc. (who would have languished in a prison in any other civilized country) and become prime-minister material. :D :D
Or are you planning to pratice some white-collar crime/fraud here after getting the coveted GC - like starting a "consulting company" to import indentured servants at dirt cheap prices? :D :D
Ganguteli, I must say you have proven that in this thread itself, with irrelevant, off-topic responses. :p
Hey mind your business. You don't know a thing about India and I am sure you wouldn't have even visited once in your lifetime. If you have problem with individuals, companies, sue them find legal ways to stop their wrong doing. It is good for everyone. Dishonesty is not a patent of any country. You show me 10 corrupt people from India, I will show you 100 from UK, 100 from USA and 100 from Japan.. Don't blabber about things you don't know in a public forum. I am taking offense of what you wrote.. You owe an apology to India and people from that country in this forum..
more...
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senthil1
07-10 01:32 AM
Everyone knows that increasing green card numbers will be best solution. In that also if we ask too much we may not get anything. Double the number of annual Gc plus exclude dependents will be enough for reducing retrogession but that may not eliminate. But waiting period of 2 to 3 years can be reasonable for most people. I am sure one more chance will come for increasing H1b numbers. That time we can try for GC increase also.
But I am supporting the flower Campaign for protesting the VB mess up though it will not solve the problem
You seem to be pretty good at analyzing faults in others' ideas and thoughts . What are your suggestions to acheive releif from retrogression.
Smitha,
You can suggest too ...
But I am supporting the flower Campaign for protesting the VB mess up though it will not solve the problem
You seem to be pretty good at analyzing faults in others' ideas and thoughts . What are your suggestions to acheive releif from retrogression.
Smitha,
You can suggest too ...
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indianabacklog
06-15 10:05 AM
Hi everyone ,
i have three question please please anyone answer ....
1 - i have previously applied but was returned due to pd not current , what to file in the form where it say if u have appllied before ? ( i am filing on my own this time )
2 - should the salary be there on employment letter . if so the present day salary or the one with labour approve ?
3 - i have an A# when my file was returned should i use that or leave it blank wherever it is asked also my wife have TIN number is that what i am supposed to write where it ask her to give her SSN
i will appreciate anyone answering any question please
thank you
pranju
The employment letter should state the salary and should also say the job is full time and permanent. Also include general job description and job title matching the labor cert.
You should include your A# wherever it is asked for. You do NOT put the taxpayer ID # instead of SS#, leave it blank.
Regarding your first question. I would suggest the truth is always the truth and check the yes box to an application being filed before and add a short explanatory note with it.
good luck, I filed mine and my husbands on my own, just take your time and read carefully.
i have three question please please anyone answer ....
1 - i have previously applied but was returned due to pd not current , what to file in the form where it say if u have appllied before ? ( i am filing on my own this time )
2 - should the salary be there on employment letter . if so the present day salary or the one with labour approve ?
3 - i have an A# when my file was returned should i use that or leave it blank wherever it is asked also my wife have TIN number is that what i am supposed to write where it ask her to give her SSN
i will appreciate anyone answering any question please
thank you
pranju
The employment letter should state the salary and should also say the job is full time and permanent. Also include general job description and job title matching the labor cert.
You should include your A# wherever it is asked for. You do NOT put the taxpayer ID # instead of SS#, leave it blank.
Regarding your first question. I would suggest the truth is always the truth and check the yes box to an application being filed before and add a short explanatory note with it.
good luck, I filed mine and my husbands on my own, just take your time and read carefully.
more...
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paskal
07-09 06:44 PM
trying to understand your problem?
the goal (and you may have to chew on this a while) of this campaign is not to bend rules. it is to create media attention for our problems.
this may be a catalyst to anything- 485 filing, bridging amendments...who knows?
the point is we have to keep trying. sounds like you want to slink away into your "reality". well, since we are all living in fantasy, friend, please let us enjoy it. thanks for your encouragement btw.
the goal (and you may have to chew on this a while) of this campaign is not to bend rules. it is to create media attention for our problems.
this may be a catalyst to anything- 485 filing, bridging amendments...who knows?
the point is we have to keep trying. sounds like you want to slink away into your "reality". well, since we are all living in fantasy, friend, please let us enjoy it. thanks for your encouragement btw.
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americandesi
03-24 05:22 PM
Refer http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/osc/htm/engperliwdiss.htm
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dtekkedil
07-09 06:32 PM
This message is posted on USCIS website.
Atleast the Director is now aware of the sufferings of GC filers.
-----------------------
Message from USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez
I understand that individuals are planning to send flowers to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) beginning on Tuesday, July 10. USCIS has made arrangements to forward those flowers to our injured service members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
------------------------
Is this for real???
Can you post a link here?
Atleast the Director is now aware of the sufferings of GC filers.
-----------------------
Message from USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez
I understand that individuals are planning to send flowers to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) beginning on Tuesday, July 10. USCIS has made arrangements to forward those flowers to our injured service members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
------------------------
Is this for real???
Can you post a link here?
jasmin45
07-13 07:24 AM
The whole controversy involving Lou Dobbs and leprosy started with a “60 Minutes” segment a few weeks ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonside.html
Robert Caplin for The New York Times
Lou Dobbs was at the anchor desk for CNN’s 2006 election coverage.
Related Articles
Immigrants and Prison (May 30, 2007)
Bush Takes On Conservatives Over Immigration (May 30, 2007)
Reader Responses (May 30, 2007)
Episodes of "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
"60 Minutes" of May 6, 2007 Leprosy Statistics The segment was a profile of Mr. Dobbs, and while doing background research for it, a “60 Minutes” producer came across a 2005 news report from Mr. Dobbs’s CNN program on contagious diseases. In the report, one of Mr. Dobbs’s correspondents said there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far more than in the past.
When Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” sat down to interview Mr. Dobbs on camera, she mentioned the report and told him that there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it.
“Well, I can tell you this,” he replied. “If we reported it, it’s a fact.”
With that Orwellian chestnut, Mr. Dobbs escalated the leprosy dispute into a full-scale media brouhaha. The next night, back on his own program, the same CNN correspondent who had done the earlier report, Christine Romans, repeated the 7,000 number, and Mr. Dobbs added that, if anything, it was probably an underestimate. A week later, the Southern Poverty Law Center — the civil rights group that has long been critical of Mr. Dobbs — took out advertisements in The New York Times and USA Today demanding that CNN run a correction.
Finally, Mr. Dobbs played host to two top officials from the law center on his program, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” where he called their accusations outrageous and they called him wrong, unfair and “one of the most popular people on the white supremacist Web sites.”
We’ll get to the merits of the charges and countercharges shortly, but first it’s worth considering why, beyond entertainment value, all this matters. Over the last few years, Lou Dobbs has transformed himself into arguably this country’s foremost populist. It’s an odd role, given that he spent the 1980s and ’90s buttering up chief executives on CNN, but he’s now playing it very successfully. He has become a voice for the real economic anxiety felt by many Americans.
The audience for his program has grown 72 percent since 2003, and CBS — yes, the same network that broadcasts “60 Minutes” — just hired him as a commentator on “The Early Show.” Many elites, as Mr. Dobbs likes to call them, despise him, but others see him as a hero. His latest book, “War on the Middle Class,” was a best seller and received a sympathetic review in this newspaper. Mario Cuomo has said Mr. Dobbs is “addicted to economic truth.”
Mr. Dobbs argues that the middle class has many enemies: corporate lobbyists, greedy executives, wimpy journalists, corrupt politicians. But none play a bigger role than illegal immigrants. As he sees it, they are stealing our jobs, depressing our wages and even endangering our lives.
That’s where leprosy comes in.
“The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans,” Mr. Dobbs said on his April 14, 2005, program. From there, he introduced his original report that mentioned leprosy, the flesh-destroying disease — technically known as Hansen’s disease — that has inspired fear for centuries.
According to a woman CNN identified as a medical lawyer named Dr. Madeleine Cosman, leprosy was on the march. As Ms. Romans, the CNN correspondent, relayed: “There were about 900 cases of leprosy for 40 years. There have been 7,000 in the past three years.”
“Incredible,” Mr. Dobbs replied.
Mr. Dobbs and Ms. Romans engaged in a nearly identical conversation a few weeks ago, when he was defending himself the night after the “60 Minutes” segment. “Suddenly, in the past three years, America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy,” she said, again attributing the number to Ms. Cosman.
To sort through all this, I called James L. Krahenbuhl, the director of the National Hansen’s Disease Program, an arm of the federal government. Leprosy in the United States is indeed largely a disease of immigrants who have come from Asia and Latin America. And the official leprosy statistics do show about 7,000 diagnosed cases — but that’s over the last 30 years, not the last three.
The peak year was 1983, when there were 456 cases. After that, reported cases dropped steadily, falling to just 76 in 2000. Last year, there were 137.
“It is not a public health problem — that’s the bottom line,” Mr. Krahenbuhl told me. “You’ve got a country of 300 million people. This is not something for the public to get alarmed about.” Much about the disease remains unknown, but researchers think people get it through prolonged close contact with someone who already has it.
What about the increase over the last six years, to 137 cases from 76? Is that significant?
“No,” Mr. Krahenbuhl said. It could be a statistical fluctuation, or it could be a result of better data collection in recent years. In any event, the 137 reported cases last year were fewer than in any year from 1975 to 1996.
So Mr. Dobbs was flat-out wrong. And when I spoke to him yesterday, he admitted as much, sort of. I read him Ms. Romans’s comment — the one with the word “suddenly” in it — and he replied, “I think that is wrong.” He then went on to say that as far as he was concerned, he had corrected the mistake by later broadcasting another report, on the same night as his on-air confrontation with the Southern Poverty Law Center officials. This report mentioned that leprosy had peaked in 1983.
Of course, he has never acknowledged on the air that his program presented false information twice. Instead, he lambasted the officials from the law center for saying he had. Even yesterday, he spent much of our conversation emphasizing that there really were 7,000 cases in the leprosy registry, the government’s 30-year database. Mr. Dobbs is trying to have it both ways.
I have been somewhat taken aback about how shameless he has been during the whole dispute, so I spent some time reading transcripts from old episodes of “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” The way he handled leprosy, it turns out, is not all that unusual.
For one thing, Mr. Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with reality. He has said, for example, that one-third of the inmates in the federal prison system are illegal immigrants. That’s wrong, too. According to the Justice Department, 6 percent of prisoners in this country are noncitizens (compared with 7 percent of the population). For a variety of reasons, the crime rate is actually lower among immigrants than natives.
Second, Mr. Dobbs really does give airtime to white supremacy sympathizers. Ms. Cosman, who is now deceased, was a lawyer and Renaissance studies scholar, never a medical doctor or a leprosy expert. She gave speeches in which she said that Mexican immigrants had a habit of molesting children. Back in their home villages, she would explain, rape was not as serious a crime as cow stealing. The Southern Poverty Law Center keeps a list of other such guests from “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
Finally, Mr. Dobbs is fond of darkly hinting that this country is under attack. He suggested last week that the new immigration bill in Congress could be the first step toward a new nation — a “North American union” — that combines the United States, Canada and Mexico. On other occasions, his program has described a supposed Mexican plot to reclaim the Southwest. In one such report, one of his correspondents referred to a Utah visit by Vicente Fox, then Mexico’s president, as a “Mexican military incursion.”
When I asked Mr. Dobbs about this yesterday, he said, “You’ve raised this to a level that frankly I find offensive.”
The most common complaint about him, at least from other journalists, is that his program combines factual reporting with editorializing. But I think this misses the point. Americans, as a rule, are smart enough to handle a program that mixes opinion and facts. The problem with Mr. Dobbs is that he mixes opinion and untruths. He is the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans.
There is no denying that this country’s immigration system is broken. But it defies belief — and a whole lot of economic research — to suggest that the problems of the middle class stem from illegal immigrants. Those immigrants, remember, are largely non-English speakers without a high school diploma. They have probably hurt the wages of native-born high school dropouts and made everyone else better off.
More to the point, if Mr. Dobbs’s arguments were really so good, don’t you think he would be able to stick to the facts? And if CNN were serious about being “the most trusted name in news,” as it claims to be, don’t you think it would be big enough to issue an actual correction?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonside.html
Robert Caplin for The New York Times
Lou Dobbs was at the anchor desk for CNN’s 2006 election coverage.
Related Articles
Immigrants and Prison (May 30, 2007)
Bush Takes On Conservatives Over Immigration (May 30, 2007)
Reader Responses (May 30, 2007)
Episodes of "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
"60 Minutes" of May 6, 2007 Leprosy Statistics The segment was a profile of Mr. Dobbs, and while doing background research for it, a “60 Minutes” producer came across a 2005 news report from Mr. Dobbs’s CNN program on contagious diseases. In the report, one of Mr. Dobbs’s correspondents said there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far more than in the past.
When Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” sat down to interview Mr. Dobbs on camera, she mentioned the report and told him that there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it.
“Well, I can tell you this,” he replied. “If we reported it, it’s a fact.”
With that Orwellian chestnut, Mr. Dobbs escalated the leprosy dispute into a full-scale media brouhaha. The next night, back on his own program, the same CNN correspondent who had done the earlier report, Christine Romans, repeated the 7,000 number, and Mr. Dobbs added that, if anything, it was probably an underestimate. A week later, the Southern Poverty Law Center — the civil rights group that has long been critical of Mr. Dobbs — took out advertisements in The New York Times and USA Today demanding that CNN run a correction.
Finally, Mr. Dobbs played host to two top officials from the law center on his program, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” where he called their accusations outrageous and they called him wrong, unfair and “one of the most popular people on the white supremacist Web sites.”
We’ll get to the merits of the charges and countercharges shortly, but first it’s worth considering why, beyond entertainment value, all this matters. Over the last few years, Lou Dobbs has transformed himself into arguably this country’s foremost populist. It’s an odd role, given that he spent the 1980s and ’90s buttering up chief executives on CNN, but he’s now playing it very successfully. He has become a voice for the real economic anxiety felt by many Americans.
The audience for his program has grown 72 percent since 2003, and CBS — yes, the same network that broadcasts “60 Minutes” — just hired him as a commentator on “The Early Show.” Many elites, as Mr. Dobbs likes to call them, despise him, but others see him as a hero. His latest book, “War on the Middle Class,” was a best seller and received a sympathetic review in this newspaper. Mario Cuomo has said Mr. Dobbs is “addicted to economic truth.”
Mr. Dobbs argues that the middle class has many enemies: corporate lobbyists, greedy executives, wimpy journalists, corrupt politicians. But none play a bigger role than illegal immigrants. As he sees it, they are stealing our jobs, depressing our wages and even endangering our lives.
That’s where leprosy comes in.
“The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans,” Mr. Dobbs said on his April 14, 2005, program. From there, he introduced his original report that mentioned leprosy, the flesh-destroying disease — technically known as Hansen’s disease — that has inspired fear for centuries.
According to a woman CNN identified as a medical lawyer named Dr. Madeleine Cosman, leprosy was on the march. As Ms. Romans, the CNN correspondent, relayed: “There were about 900 cases of leprosy for 40 years. There have been 7,000 in the past three years.”
“Incredible,” Mr. Dobbs replied.
Mr. Dobbs and Ms. Romans engaged in a nearly identical conversation a few weeks ago, when he was defending himself the night after the “60 Minutes” segment. “Suddenly, in the past three years, America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy,” she said, again attributing the number to Ms. Cosman.
To sort through all this, I called James L. Krahenbuhl, the director of the National Hansen’s Disease Program, an arm of the federal government. Leprosy in the United States is indeed largely a disease of immigrants who have come from Asia and Latin America. And the official leprosy statistics do show about 7,000 diagnosed cases — but that’s over the last 30 years, not the last three.
The peak year was 1983, when there were 456 cases. After that, reported cases dropped steadily, falling to just 76 in 2000. Last year, there were 137.
“It is not a public health problem — that’s the bottom line,” Mr. Krahenbuhl told me. “You’ve got a country of 300 million people. This is not something for the public to get alarmed about.” Much about the disease remains unknown, but researchers think people get it through prolonged close contact with someone who already has it.
What about the increase over the last six years, to 137 cases from 76? Is that significant?
“No,” Mr. Krahenbuhl said. It could be a statistical fluctuation, or it could be a result of better data collection in recent years. In any event, the 137 reported cases last year were fewer than in any year from 1975 to 1996.
So Mr. Dobbs was flat-out wrong. And when I spoke to him yesterday, he admitted as much, sort of. I read him Ms. Romans’s comment — the one with the word “suddenly” in it — and he replied, “I think that is wrong.” He then went on to say that as far as he was concerned, he had corrected the mistake by later broadcasting another report, on the same night as his on-air confrontation with the Southern Poverty Law Center officials. This report mentioned that leprosy had peaked in 1983.
Of course, he has never acknowledged on the air that his program presented false information twice. Instead, he lambasted the officials from the law center for saying he had. Even yesterday, he spent much of our conversation emphasizing that there really were 7,000 cases in the leprosy registry, the government’s 30-year database. Mr. Dobbs is trying to have it both ways.
I have been somewhat taken aback about how shameless he has been during the whole dispute, so I spent some time reading transcripts from old episodes of “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” The way he handled leprosy, it turns out, is not all that unusual.
For one thing, Mr. Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with reality. He has said, for example, that one-third of the inmates in the federal prison system are illegal immigrants. That’s wrong, too. According to the Justice Department, 6 percent of prisoners in this country are noncitizens (compared with 7 percent of the population). For a variety of reasons, the crime rate is actually lower among immigrants than natives.
Second, Mr. Dobbs really does give airtime to white supremacy sympathizers. Ms. Cosman, who is now deceased, was a lawyer and Renaissance studies scholar, never a medical doctor or a leprosy expert. She gave speeches in which she said that Mexican immigrants had a habit of molesting children. Back in their home villages, she would explain, rape was not as serious a crime as cow stealing. The Southern Poverty Law Center keeps a list of other such guests from “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
Finally, Mr. Dobbs is fond of darkly hinting that this country is under attack. He suggested last week that the new immigration bill in Congress could be the first step toward a new nation — a “North American union” — that combines the United States, Canada and Mexico. On other occasions, his program has described a supposed Mexican plot to reclaim the Southwest. In one such report, one of his correspondents referred to a Utah visit by Vicente Fox, then Mexico’s president, as a “Mexican military incursion.”
When I asked Mr. Dobbs about this yesterday, he said, “You’ve raised this to a level that frankly I find offensive.”
The most common complaint about him, at least from other journalists, is that his program combines factual reporting with editorializing. But I think this misses the point. Americans, as a rule, are smart enough to handle a program that mixes opinion and facts. The problem with Mr. Dobbs is that he mixes opinion and untruths. He is the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans.
There is no denying that this country’s immigration system is broken. But it defies belief — and a whole lot of economic research — to suggest that the problems of the middle class stem from illegal immigrants. Those immigrants, remember, are largely non-English speakers without a high school diploma. They have probably hurt the wages of native-born high school dropouts and made everyone else better off.
More to the point, if Mr. Dobbs’s arguments were really so good, don’t you think he would be able to stick to the facts? And if CNN were serious about being “the most trusted name in news,” as it claims to be, don’t you think it would be big enough to issue an actual correction?
singhv_1980
02-04 05:40 PM
Today 23rd day..and still waiting for PP..
H1B renewal at New Delhi embassy..
singhv, are you also waiting for your pp ?? what is your case and status ?
I am going for visa interview in Feb end. It will be in Delhi consulate. This will be my first stamping. My H1B was approved Oct 06 from Vermont service center. My impression was that it is taking 2 weeks on an average..but you have crossed that time limit. Good Luck Buddy! ..keep us posted...
H1B renewal at New Delhi embassy..
singhv, are you also waiting for your pp ?? what is your case and status ?
I am going for visa interview in Feb end. It will be in Delhi consulate. This will be my first stamping. My H1B was approved Oct 06 from Vermont service center. My impression was that it is taking 2 weeks on an average..but you have crossed that time limit. Good Luck Buddy! ..keep us posted...
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