Oh, Lou

Are you astounded that illegal immigrants would demonstrate to protest the enforcement of the borders they crossed illegally to enter the United States?

Lou Dobbs is nothing if not consistent and willing to fight for what he believes. For that, DB applauds him.

However, this question assumes that there were "illegal immigrants" among the protesters. DB will stipulate that's probably true, but how does Lou know how many there were? It's as if everybody out there protesting "crossed" the borders.

What about neighbors and first-generation citizens? Maybe Lou's right and everybody in the Los Angeles streets this weekend snuck into this country... but this blogger thinks that Lou should be sure about that before throwing that question out there.

Furthermore, 77% of his respondents were "astounded" by that. Why would anybody be shocked that people assumed to have not respected a border would protest its enforcement?

Maybe Lou's next question should be:

Are you astounded that a television show would wonder why people don't respect a border when American business owners are offering gainful employment to undocumented workers and the governments on either side tacitly encourage people to cross it by inconsistently, infrequently and arbitrarily enforcing the laws?

UPDATE: Just to be clear. DB has little doubt that some percentage of those protesters are in this country illegally. Obviously, it is unreasonable to assume that none are, and it is both statistically and logically likely, based on the point of the protests, that a substantial number are. But DB gets the impression that Dobbs, and those who share his ideas about immigration, looked at those crowds and saw 500,000 Mexicans, when it is just as likely for a reasonable person to assume that some substantial percentage of the protesters are citizens. Without any evidence either way, this poll question seems irresponsible.