On the April 4 edition of American Family Radio's (AFR) Today's Issues, Joseph Farah, founder and editor of the right-wing news website WorldNetDaily (WND), asserted without evidence that there are 20 million to 30 million “illegals” in the U.S. Farah also claimed that the “one-worlders” of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) have a plan to merge the United States, Mexico, and Canada by 2010 and suggested that President Bush's proposed guest worker program is part of this plan.

Despite Farah's contention that "[s]ometimes the conspiracies are right," the CFR document he referenced, "Trinational Call for a North American Economic and Security Community by 2010," is a far cry from a plan for “merger.” The document advocates the economic and security community between the United States, Canada, and Mexico “to address shared security threats, challenges to competitiveness, and interest in broad-based development across the three countries.” Further, contrary to Farah's claim of 20 million to 30 million “illegals” in the United States, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that as of March 2006, there were 11.5 million to 12 million “unauthorized migrants.”

Farah's WorldNetDaily website has promoted the idea of lax enforcement of U.S. laws against illegal immigration being part of a plan by the CFR and other “one-world” groups. An April 4 WND article stated that recent “massive rallies of half a million in support of illegal aliens in both Chicago and L.A.” were “well-organized, well-funded and directed by the hidden hands of globalist foundations with a one-world agenda.” Organizations cited included the CFR and the Ford Foundation. WND also sells a book, Brotherhood of Darkness (Hearthstone Publishing, 2000) by Stanley Monteith, that purports to tell “the story of the secret societies that operate like a black hand behind the scenes of power in the world.”

From the April 4 edition of American Family Radio's Today's Issues:

TIM WILDMON (host): Joe, President Vicente Fox of Mexico is -- been a proponent of open borders, and he is good friends with President Bush. And President Bush has made no secret about his desire to have the worker permit programs and, basically, an amnesty for the illegals who are here now. Do you think -- I've heard some people suggest that President Bush and and maybe the Canadian president as well as Vicente Fox are all three in favor of open borders. How do you think --

FARAH: Well, not only are they in favor of it, they're on record. They signed an accord last March of 2005 to -- actually, the accord says by 2010 they want to make sure that people are moving faster between our three countries. They're not moving fast enough for these guys right now. And you know, we've had like a million people coming over the Mexico border every month. I mean, how many faster do they need to -- what, are we going to build subways for these people and high speed rail-lines so that we can move illegal workers back and forth? It is astonishing. It's also part of a Council on Foreign Relations report that by 2010, they want to merge our three countries.

WILDMON: Are you -- did I hear you correctly? Did you say that there are a million people coming across a month?

FARAH: Yes. And we're being lied to, Tim, in terms of the numbers. You know, we hear about 11 or 12 million illegals. The real numbers are somewhere between 20 and 30 million.

JEFF CHAMBLEE (co-host): Wow. That's unbelievable.

WILDMON: You just scratch your head at why our government officials are not protecting our borders, and you start to have a conspiracy theory, you know what I'm saying?

FARAH: Sometimes, the conspiracies are right.

WILDMON: Yeah.

[...]

WILDMON: Jeff Chamblee and I are talking to Joe about the border situation, and I mentioned the two words that are coming to mind more often now, and that is “conspiracy theory.” But let me -- there are two things, Joe, maybe you can address that would be less conspiracy theory and be more rational reasons why many of our government officials, including the president, are not willing to crack down on the border.

FARAH: Well, you know --

WILDMON: One is, how do you address the thing -- well, we want cheap labor.

FARAH: Well, that was the answer that we used to get. I've had many, many discussions with [Rep.] Tom Tancredo [R-CO] -- in fact, we're publishing a book by him in the next 90 days or so. And you know, we -- I used to have him on my radio show, and every single time I had him on I'd say, '“Tom, explain this to me. Explain why people in Washington are going against not just the will of the people but the overwhelming, you know, will of the people.” And you know, his pat answer was always, well, you know, it's -- the Democrats, they want these folks in here because that's their political constituency. They want voters. And the Republicans want them in because it gives their corporate fat-cat friends cheap labor. And it seemed like that was plausible, especially when President Bush last year, you might remember, made some comments where he said, you know, these folks are absolutely integral to our economy. Our economy would suffer without these people. Which I thought was really a strange thing to say. In other words, the work that these people do, Americans don't want to do it. They wouldn't do this demeaning work. To me, that was an insult to both Americans and to these illegal aliens. I mean, should we be exploiting people who are doing work that's beneath the average American?

Anyway, I've gotten to the point, Tim, where I don't buy this cheap-labor -- this cheap-labor argument anymore. I think there is much more to it. I think it's a component of it, but there is a plan under way, and believe me, it's underlined in print so I don't have to speculate about this. But the Council on Foreign Relations -- which is often referred to as a shadow government for one-worlders, globalists and so forth -- there is a report out there which was drafted last year, and it talks about the formation of a North American security and economic community, much like, you know, I guess, the European community, where in essence, we would be moving toward merger with Canada and Mexico -- the United States, Canada, and Mexico. And the biggest components of this are the easy flow of people throughout the three countries and, supposedly, tighter security around the borders of the three countries. In other words, no security between the Mexico and U.S., but the outer perimeter of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, that's where we would put our attention for security. So the weakest link, the weakest link -- if Mexico doesn't do what it's supposed to do to keep terrorists out of its country -- becomes our weakest link. And that is what the Council on Foreign Relations is promoting, and it's not promoting this in a vacuum. And these are not some, you know, wacky people. These are people in the Bush administration, there are people who served in the Clinton administration. And it seems to be right in line with what President Bush has put together with Vicente Fox and the prime minister of Canada.