Lou Dobbs Slams 'Outrageous' Story on Illegals

Lou Dobbs today dismissed the "outrageous claims" made by the Nation magazine that he employed illegal immigrants to care for his family's estates and horses, reports ABC News. "Did you say that I hired or my firm hired illegal immigrants?" he asked reporter Isabel Macdonald on his radio show. Her answer: "I am saying that for years, undocumented immigrants looked after your show jumping horses, and for years, they looked after the grounds at your West Palm Beach estate in Florida. This article is fact-checked 100%. It is legally vetted."

The distinction seems to be that Dobbs himself didn't do the hiring, but it's possible that the firms he contracted with used illegals. "I had been told that they were absolutely legal," he said. "And you were told the same thing ... and you didn't mention that in your piece." In the article, Macdonald talks to several undocumented immigrants who worked for the former CNN anchor, a fierce opponent of illegal immigration. One tells her that Dobbs "knew very well that the majority of us didn't have papers," but that "was never a problem." (More Lou Dobbs stories.)