This is a rush transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” August 16, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Homeless advocate and immigration opponent Ted Hayes was assaulted this past Tuesday for spreading his message that illegal immigrants are damaging this country and specifically attacking African-Americans.
An immigration group started false rumors about Hayes being connected to the Ku Klux Klan, which resulted in a black militant assaulting Hayes and spitting at him during a press conference. Eventually, the LAPD was called, and two officers had to wrestle the aggressor to the ground before arresting him.
Ted Hayes joins us now.
Ted, I’ve known you a long time. We haven’t always agreed. But I want to bring specifically into this you’re against illegal immigration and you’ve taken a stand. Somebody just attacked you for your views.
TED HAYES, IMMIGRATION OPPONENT: Actually, yes sir. Actually, the guy just spit in my face. That’s the first time something like that really ever happened.
HANNITY: Is that on tape?
HAYES: No. We did not get a chance to catch that. But we were having a news conference out in front of the L.A. Symphony, Choose Black America, which is the organization that I chair.
We were having a news conference about the murders in Newark, New Jersey, and the failure of the elected officials to obey their oath of office to protect us and that we’re having the same kinds of problems here in Los Angeles.
And we’re calling on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and particularly L.A. City Council Bernard Parks to help us dispel this rumor so that we can end the violence, but they refuse to do so.
HANNITY: Let’s go to the heart of the message that you’re bringing here. And that is that illegal immigrants are damaging the country and specifically attacking African-Americans. Do you see this as a growing phenomenon and danger?
HAYES: Yes, sir. It’s getting out of hand, and it’s getting to the point where they’re callous about doing it, to the point where they don’t mind threatening us. They threatened my life, you know, and said, “We’re going to cut your throat.” And so forth and so on.
HANNITY: Yes.
HAYES: They don’t care. And that’s a lie, Sean, in America. That because the black leadership, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, these folks are telling them that their illegal immigration movement is an extension of the civil rights movement. There is no comparison between the two whatsoever.
HANNITY: I agree.
SUSAN ESTRICH, GUEST CO-HOST: I got a couple of questions here, Ted, because I live in Los Angeles.
HAYES: Susan, how you doing?
ESTRICH: I’m doing great. How are you?
First of all, you weren’t attacked by a Hispanic, were you?
HAYES: No, ma’am. But it was because of a rabble of Hispanics and some white folks…
ESTRICH: How do you know that? You were attacked by a black man. Right?
HAYES: I know, but that very same man. You see in video that he was there on June 23 when they denied me, who had a permit to be in Merrick Park. They denied my permit. And he was there, and he’s on film being there. He was dressed in paramilitary fatigues.
ESTRICH: Yes, but I mean, how you blame Latinos for this, I don’t know. Let me just make this point. The Latino leaders I know in Los Angeles and Washington and New York are trying to bring people together, to make clear that blacks and Hispanics have common concerns.
HAYES: I’ll tell you, Ms. Estrich, I agree with you. Ms. Estrich, I’ll tell you what. I have been asking the Latino leadership to meet with me for a year and a half, including Placido Lopez and all of them. They have not done it.
I challenge you. I ask you. Would you please facilitate a meeting between my group and their group so we can dialogue? Every time I try to do it, ma’am, they have refused me.
ESTRICH: But you are claiming they’re taking — I mean, I got some quotes from you when you were on the show. “They’re taking our jobs away, our homes away.”
HAYES: Ma’am, what they’re doing — listen, before you cite a cliche, what they’ve done is come here, and they have undercut our labor laws. They went against the U.S. labor law standards and they push blacks out of that.
For us to go back and undercut the Companeros, that would put us right back into slavery. And black people are not going to go back into slavery. We were there once. We’re not going to go there again. And we’re not going to let the Companeros be slaves to white greedy corporations in America any longer.
ESTRICH: Let me ask you a question.
HAYES: Or homeless for that matter.
ESTRICH: Let me ask you a question, Ted.
HAYES: Please.
ESTRICH: If you go down any street in Los Angeles, any street…
HAYES: Yes, ma’am.
ESTRICH: … you will see Hispanic babysitters taking care of the kids, housekeepers cleaning the house, Hispanic gardeners tending the lawns, some of them legal, some of them illegal, many of them trying to make a living, sending their kids to college. Why aren’t blacks in those jobs?
HAYES: Because we were forced out of those jobs. As I said to you before, they undercut the wages. They’re working below the labor standards. And for anyone in America to work below the labor standards is considered a slave. Remember? All the union battles we had about labor laws?
ESTRICH: Well, but you can’t still be blaming slavery for the problems of black America. I mean…
HAYES: Hold on. You’re jumping, ma’am. You’re jumping. You’re jumping. Slow down. Go back and hear what I just said.
I said the Companeros are coming here. They’re working below the labor standards for wages. We blacks are not going to do that. No American, white, black, brown or red or yellow, should work below the labor standards. That’s slavery. That’s a form of slavery. It’s not chattel slavery, which my people suffered, but it’s still slavery.
ESTRICH: Nobody is for slavery. But…
HAYES: Wait. No, no, no, no. What about that?
ESTRICH: Are you, Sean?
HANNITY: No.
HAYES: You’re saying it’s OK for them to work below the labor standards. That’s what you’re saying.
ESTRICH: I don’t think employers should pay below the labor standards. But I admire people who are willing to work a day’s wage for a day’s pay.
HAYES: No one’s questioning that. You know what? We should stop slavery. We should enforce the laws against employers and homeowners like you who hire them.
HANNITY: Thank you. We’ve got to let you go.
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