Are Lou Dobbs’s Workers Undocumented? Isabel Macdonald Explains on Democracy Now!

Are Lou Dobbs’s Workers Undocumented? Isabel Macdonald Explains on Democracy Now!

Are Lou Dobbs’s Workers Undocumented? Isabel Macdonald Explains on Democracy Now!

Investigative journalist Isabel Macdonald explains how she uncovered Lou Dobbs’s immigration hypocrisy for her explosive article in this issue of The Nation.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

For her explosive article in this issue of The Nation, "Lou Dobbs, American Hypocrite," investigative journalist Isabel Macdonald spent a year tracking down and interviewing undocumented workers Lou Dobbs contracted to tend his gardens and care for his horses. As Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman points out, "Dobbs has been called the most influential spokesperson for the anti-immigration movement and has often used his TV and radio shows to criticize employers who break US law by hiring undocumented workers."

By interviewing workers from places such as Guatemala and Mexico who have worked for Lou Dobbs over the past five years, Macdonald found that the "fundamental issue" that Dobbs’s hypocrisy raises is that "there’s a huge demand created by people like Dobbs: affluent white Americans… And at the same time, there is no way for [workers] to do this work legally."

—Joanna Chiu

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x