Is Illegal Immigration as Dangerous for African-Americans as Slavery Was?

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," April 26, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Critics of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps have often labeled their efforts to secure the U.S. border with Mexico as discriminatory against people of color. But now several African-Americans activists are joining the Minutemen's efforts.

Joining us now is one of those leaders, homeless advocate Ted Hayes.

Ted, thank you for being with us. I know you speak up for the downtrodden, the poor and those who come and take jobs that could go to Americans. Isn't the issue — let's go after the employers? Let's go after those who are paying sub-minimum wage to people who are here undocumented and give those jobs to Americans and force the employers to pay what they should pay?

TED HAYES, HOMELESS ADVOCATE: Absolutely right, and I've been saying that all along, that these employers are essentially slavers, and they're trying to reestablish slavery in this country.

That's why I say that I support and am a member of the Minutemen. And I'm saying to black America this is our issue. We were slaves at one time in this country and we cannot allow for slavery to be reestablished. We can't allow our campaneros... .

COLMES: Minutemen — that's not what the Minutemen's focus is. The Minutemen's focus, of course, is watching the border. Now they're talking about building a fence, which I think is unworkable. And plus, you need billions of dollars to build it and billions of dollars to watch it and personnel to watch it.

But the employers who are really hurting the working poor, that's where I would focus. And isn't that something we can agree on?

HAYES: Absolutely. And the Minutemen — the Minutemen feel the same way. I know Jim Gilchrest and Chris Simcox and all the fellows, Martin Stewart (ph), who were the first black Minutemen on the board, these are our sentiments.

And see, the Minutemen, remember, they're only a year old, and they're really waking people up. And they're still developing their ideas and their philosophy. They're really giving us this idea that civil rights is also the issue, because these illegal people are demanding civil rights.

These are the things that we black people gave our lives for, and it's wrong for them to come into this country and claim our civil rights.

COLMES: That may be true. What do you do with the people, though — what do you do with the people already in the country, something neither party wants to deal with? Because you can't ignore, even the president said the other day it's impractical to say we're going to get rid of 11 million people and deport them. I agree with the president on that.

HAYES: That's not — that's not true. They got here. They can leave here.

COLMES: How are you going to get them to leave?

HAYES: Well, I just sent a letter to the pope, OK, Pope Benedict XVI. And I said to him, "Sir, these are good Roman Catholic Christians." Because this is not an issue of walls, or soldiers or legislation.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Hey, Ted.

HAYES: It's a moral issue. It's a moral issue, and these people need to know that they are stealing. They're trespassing. And stop it, because you're good Roman Catholic Christians. Take your children and go home.

HANNITY: You — welcome back to the program, my friend. Glad you're here.

HAYES: Thank you, Sean. Thank you.

HANNITY: You're under fire for saying the biggest threat to blacks in America since slavery is illegal immigration. A lot of people don't like the fact that you made that analogy. How do you...

HAYES: Absolutely. Because it's true.

HANNITY: I've known you a long time. You never — you never shy away from a fight or a controversy. What did you mean by that for maybe somebody who didn't understand what you meant?

HAYES: If this illegal immigration process continues, it is going to completely destroy us. We are losing our homes, our lands, our houses, our employment.

HANNITY: But is it wrong to compare it to slavery, — the criticism?

HAYES: What do you mean is it wrong to compare it to slavery?

HANNITY: You use the words "biggest threat to blacks in America since slavery" and people are offended that you said that.

HAYES: Yes, yes. Yes, because it's destroying us. We're dying as a people, and they're doing it in the name of our civil rights. They're invoking the name of Martin Luther King. They got nothing to do with that.

HANNITY: In other words, you're saying the moral comparison is unfair?

HAYES: Yes, it is. They cannot be claiming what they're going through is the same as slavery. We are immigrants, not by choice. We came here against our will. We came in here backward. And we've been struggling from slavery through Jim Crowe and 40 years of social welfare. It's destroyed our people.

HANNITY: You also said that — you go on to say that the people here, that blacks refuse to accept slave wages that the illegal immigrants are accepting. Is that your major, then, thrust, and major point here? Is that what you're saying?

HAYES: That's one of them, Sir.

HANNITY: Explain that, thought, because some people — I don't think people understood it.

HAYES: We lost over 600,000 young white men and thousands of young black men in this country in the Civil War to end this issue of people having free labor over other human beings. And we, as black people, we have a moral duty and responsibility to not reenter into slavery. Otherwise we betray our ancestors, those who died.

COLMES: All right.

HAYES: And we cannot our campaneros to be turned into slavery in this country. If they want to be slaves, let them be slaves in another country, but not in the United States of America.

COLMES: We're just out of time, Ted. Thank you.

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