Lou Dobbs fires back at article charges

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NEW YORK, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs says a magazine article suggesting he's responsible for illegal immigrants caring for his properties held him to a double standard.

The article in The Nation does not say Dobbs directly hired illegal workers but that contractors he employed did, suggesting that he should be held liable, ABC News reported Friday.

Dobbs has often criticized employers who hire illegal workers, suggesting they should face felony charges.

Dobbs said he did ask the landscaping firm at his West Palm Beach, Fla., home for assurances no illegal immigrants would be working on his property, but there was no legal way he could guarantee that.

"Unless you're asking me and millions of other Americans to engage in racial profiling, because that's the only way you can satisfy the objections that The Nation has raised, that would be racial profiling on my part to make sure this thing doesn't happen," he said.

On Dobbs' radio show Thursday, Isabel MacDonald, author of the article, disputed Dobbs' assertion that it is filled with "outrageous claims."

"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 percent. It is legally vetted," she said.

"I had been told that they were absolutely legal," Dobbs, in response, said of the workers.

"And you were told the same thing and you didn't mention that in your piece," he said to MacDonald.