Immigration group criticizes CNN show host

MIAMI, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A Hispanic group in Miami has begun a campaign against CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs for what the group said are disparaging remarks about Hispanic immigrants.

Jorge Mursuli, leader of Democracia U.S.A., said he hopes to create a grassroots movement to counter Dobbs's crusade against illegal immigrants, the Miami Herald reported Monday.

Mursuli maintains that Dobbs blamed immigrants for many things, including a rise in leprosy in the United States, pushing the Mexico-to-Canada "superhighway" of illegal immigrants and contributing to an immigrant crime wave.

"If CNN is, in fact, 'the most trusted name in news,' (the network's slogan) we really have to ask them to hold Mr. Dobbs to journalistic standards," said Mursuli, whose group plans to launch an anti-Dobbs Web site, www.EnoughisEnough!.com.

Other immigration groups have demanded CNN take Dobbs, whose wife is Mexican-American, off the air for his anti-immigration politics, the Herald said.

CNN spokeswoman Barbara Levin declined to comment in an e-mail to the Herald.