Stephen Colbert To Testify Before Congress On Immigration

Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert will be testifying before Congress on Friday about immigration during a hearing called "Protecting America's Harvest."

Colbert will be appearing with United Farm Workers (UFW) President Arturo S. Rodriguez before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. In August, the comedian spent a day working at a corn and vegetable farm in New York state after Rodriguez appeared on his show to discuss UFW's "Take Our Jobs" campaign.

The effort was intended to debunk the theory that undocumented immigrants are taking jobs away from American citizens and highlight the fact the nation's food supply is dependent on these farm workers. "Farm workers are ready to welcome citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field," said the UFW site. "We will use our knowledge and staff to help connect the unemployed with farm employers."

According to a UFW press release, since the effort launched, "more than three million people have visited the campaign web site, www.takeourjobs.org. Of those visitors, 8,600 have expressed an interest in seeking employment as farm workers. Despite the numbers, only seven people have taken the UFW up on its offer to take a job in agriculture."

The "Take our Jobs" episode covering Colbert's day in the fields will air on "The Colbert Report" tonight, Sept. 22. It will also feature an interview with Rep. Zoe Lofregn (D-Calif.) on immigration reform. On Thursday, agricultural workers will be visiting congressional offices on Capitol Hill to lobby for the AgJOBS bill, which would grant undocumented farm workers currently in the United states the right to earn legal status by continuing to work in agriculture.

According to The Daily Caller, Colbert will be appearing "in character," and some Republicans are upset that he will be at the hearing because it may "make light of a serious issue."

Comments

[PatiencePie]

10:03 AM on 09/27/2010

What are immigrants doing?

They're cleaning toilets in motels -- do you want that job?

How about mowing lawns? Washing dishes in a diner? Bathing and changing diapers for elderly people in nursing homes?

How about plucking chicken 8 hours a day in a freezing factory filled with the smell of blood and rotting meat?

Or maybe you would prefer to pick fruit all day long in the broiling sun for a couple bucks an hour?

Why blame these people for having the drive to succeed and the will to do the hardest jobs? I know some people say if these jobs paid more, Americans would apply for them. Yeah, like that's gonna happen soon! In a deregulated economy, businesses set the agenda and they will keep wages as low as possible.

[american-dolt]

10:19 AM on 09/26/2010

I love Colbert, and I saw the episode, it was hysterical, But is Congress the most out of touch people in the Country?

The seem so Clueless about damn near everything?

[leonel]

01:11 AM on 09/26/2010

OK, so Cold Burt is cute, let's not detract from anybody to make another point. But let me clue in a few persons who just might get to read this note. I just helped three Mexicans sell their junk cars to be recycled. We used to go across the border like it wasn't even there but it is now beyond anybody's worse nightmare.

One of the guys who I helped get rid of a pickup for recycling price told me his family used to have a small store right across the border and now the Mexican criminal element is so bad that they are trying to extort money from every small business. Mexicans who go back to visit can't feel safe is traveling.

It is ten times worse than the media reports and I am not blaming anybody or trying to make a political point, except the following predictions.

Soon US-Mexico border will be formally militarized. By this I mean that the US military will be ordered to secure the border by whatever means necessary, short of laying mine fields or killing civilians indiscriminately.

There will not be any "Amnesty" simple answers or naive "comprehensive immigration reform" solutions but there will have to be heart wrenching mutual help between Americans and Hispanics to start understanding a great crisis that is fed by poverty, illegal drugs, illegal labor, illegal everything, and mutual exploitation that has occurred on both sides of the border.

This is just the beginning of the story.

[o4tuna]

03:50 PM on 09/25/2010

SANITY ROCKS WASILLA!!!

I just wanted to get in here and say there is a lot of stuff going on for Rally to Restore Sanity rallies around the nation. All over the nation, rallies are being put together to support the DC rally.

Check out http:ww.rallymao.com for a growing list of cities.

[termgirl]

09:25 PM on 09/25/2010

Thank you.

[perpetual kitten]

01:10 PM on 09/25/2010

Sad but true, fundamentally it is slave labor that makes food affordable masses. Obviously the system is not perfect, but say these farms did pay living wages- i imagine the cost of farmed food would skyrocket.

[Fred Enfield]

10:46 AM on 09/25/2010

I realize that celebrity comedians are classified one notch above commoners so I can understand why he was allowed to enter Valhalla and actually speak to the assembled servants of democracy. But what did they expect him to say? Don't see the point of this. Did they just want to prove what we already know? People like Colbert are cute on TV but aren't qualified to address "important" leaders and are subject to removal unless they repeat the same patronizing clichés which constantly escape from the mouths of the exalted ones

[PatiencePie]

09:47 AM on 09/27/2010

Stephen Colbert is -- and this is truly unfortunate -- much smarter and way better informed than many members of Congress. It takes my breath away how many men and women in Congress lack even the basic factual knowledge of issues. They get their half-truth "talking points" from partisan pundits -- or even worse, from flaming, extremist ideologues. So I see Colbert as an asset to moving us towards a rational discussion. If we have to use a comedian to reveal the truth, so be it.

[Maaack]

09:32 AM on 09/28/2010

How about this truth... if we weren't paying so many people to sit around and do nothing...more Americans would be doing this work. And if more legal Americans were doing this work maybe they could legally lobby, organize and obtain better working conditions instead of taking the easy liberal way out and saying "oh they only want jobs" how about maybe taking a hard look and asking how the entire situation could be made better?
Nevermind, liberals always take the easy way out as long as it makes them feel warm and fuzzy.

Nobody likes to say "work or starve" yet isn't that in the end what everyone does? Well, most everyone...

[vince7]

02:32 AM on 09/25/2010

I wish people would stop with the farm work lies and the meat processor lies. I live in my states capital and there are not meat plants nor larges farms near by. So what jobs are the illegals doing? The vast majority of them are not on farms and lettuce is not costing $10.00.

Another thing. How are the illegals getting financing to open small businesses? I was born here and can't get loans from banks for my company even with a personal score of 800. This entire situation is out of hand. Maybe I should change my surname to Morales or something.

[PatiencePie]

09:54 AM on 09/27/2010

Just because you don't live near a farm or food processing plant doesn't mean immigrants aren't filling 90% of those jobs. They're also cleaning toilets in motels -- do you want that job? How about mowing lawns? Washing dishes in restaurants? Bathing and changing diapers for elderly people in nursing homes? Immigrants do those jobs -- are you interested? How about a salary of $5 to $8 an hour? Okay with you?

Many immigrants pool their money from family members to start businesses and do all the work themselves to keep expenses down. And while they may get micro-loans or grants from small business incubators, they still have to present a viable business plan. I can guarantee they're not getting big bank loans!

[Maaack]

09:34 AM on 09/28/2010

LOL wow...of course they aren't getting loans they are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS and most of them have multiples identities as far as govt documentation.

[edro3638]

01:20 AM on 09/25/2010

This man is truly an artist and an intellect! I bless him!

[Oginikwe]

12:46 AM on 09/25/2010

I thought Colbert was both hilarious and brilliant. Conyers needs to see a proctologist to remove that bug.

Conservatives are constantly whining about illegals but no one ever brings up the major players who hire them.

Like chicken? Who do you think kills, guts, and butchers all the chicken that is eaten in this country in a day? Who do you think butchers all the cattle and pigs? If Americans don’t want to work in the fields picking beans, they sure as hell don’t want to be gutting and cutting through gristle all day. If anyone REALLY wanted to stop illegal immigration in this country, we’d see top corporate names in the news everyday because of their hiring practices. But we don’t. Instead we attack and persecute people who are fleeing a land without the rule of law because our illegal drug abuse fuels their drug wars while we also sell them illegal guns. But, what the hell—at least because of NAFTA, we can dump our governmentally subsidized corn in their country and put their farmers out of work.

[edro3638]

01:18 AM on 09/25/2010

My sentiments exactly! Thank you!

[loyalist1]

01:23 AM on 09/25/2010

"Like chicken? Who do you think kills, guts, and butchers all the chicken that is eaten in this country in a day? Who do you think butchers all the cattle and pigs? If Americans don’t want to work in the fields picking beans, they sure as hell don’t want to be gutting and cutting through gristle all day"

Actually, I like vegetables. And all of them can be harvested by machines---some of them as simple as tractor attachments. There are plenty of harvesting implements you can observe in action on YouTube, so try to get educated. American agriculture is slowly losing out to globalized agribusiness which enjoys labor rates, typically, of $5 a day. US farms cannot compete if they have to pay $100.

[Oginikwe]

12:52 PM on 10/01/2010

Hardly any fresh vegetables are harested by machine. Grains and some vegetables like potatoes are but most entail a crew of human beings. The machinery that you are referring to costs thousands of dollars. Threshers and tractors are way over $100,000.

Globalized agribusiness is what is giving us vegetables like the "dirty dozen." You apparently have no idea how much a U.S. farm that is part of factory farming grosses in a year compared to a realy family farm.


You may educate yourself on food issues by visiting http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/.

[glzgowlass]

11:16 PM on 09/24/2010

I didn't see all of it but I thought Conyers had a bit of a cheek asking Colbert to leave before his testimony. Surprised it wasn't one of the republicans. I'd have expected that from them

[Maaack]

09:37 AM on 09/28/2010

Obviously you are forgetting how all the sleazy Dems are busy scrambling to the right.
Good for the country, bad for all the Libacrats that will once again buy this garbage of govt knows whats best for you don't bother thinking for yourself"

[Suzanne804]

06:45 PM on 09/24/2010

This remark is taken from the site NumbersUSA. We have to have immigration reform if this country is to survive.
“It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.”
- Barbara Jordan

[freez]

06:06 PM on 09/24/2010

Colbert exposes what so many find hard to see . . . everyone is in character, trying to impress, trying not to offend, trying to get over, get ahead, be understood, recognized --in this farcical nation where wars are fought in search of invisible weapons and bankers whose reckless betting gets them rewarded while working people find no support when unable to find work, we need more Steven Colbert's, folks with the courage to look the puppets in the face and out act them

[graciesgra]

03:00 PM on 09/24/2010

I think a lot of people are missing the point here, although not everyone. It shouldn't matter what Colbert's regular job is; he should have the same opportunity to say something as any other citizen in the US. After all, many people here listen to Sarah Palin. It seems to me that the proof is in the pudding. How many American citizens took the UFWs up on their offer to take away their jobs? Only a few. So maybe what they have been saying over the years is true; that Americans really don't want to do those jobs, and that's all that Colbert wants to tell us. And, if you read the article carefully, it was really only some Republican who said that Colbert was going to appear "in character". Does that make it so? Isn't it possible that he could be serious over a serious topic?

[GregHooper]

03:58 PM on 09/24/2010

Once again the wages are ridiculous its not a job it is slavery

You can't eat or provide a life for yourself on the wages that they are talking about

These guys sleep in tents or bunkhouses and send their money to a third world economy to support their families


To say that we won't do the jobs is absurd we won't live like sharecroppers for the privilage of being treated like dirt and making 1/3 the minumum wage

The mistake is when they exempted farms from the labor laws thinking that Mexicans will fill the gaps

The real insult in all this is how they are making this issue about farms and will not address the fact that illegals are on every job there is

I'm an unemployed 50 year old carpenter with 30 years in the trades and a large investment in tools and every jobsite I go onto it's full of illegals

They work cheap have no tools have very little idea what they are doing and can't speak the language

When I do get some work it's generally to fix something that has been screwed up

The jobsites are a disaster and this is what is underpinning our country

Make it impossible for them to remain here and they will leave

And btw Colbert did appear in charecter and it was a very insulting segment I was disgusted at the behaviour just as I am disgusted with people who think that another amnesty will work

[ladyjonquil]

10:18 AM on 09/25/2010

"I like talking about people who don't have any power...I feel the need to speak for those who can't speak for themselves....We ask them to come and work, and then we ask them to leave again. They suffer, and have no rights."

He also quotes Matthew 25:40: "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

[valkyre]

03:33 PM on 09/25/2010

People only hire immigrants to do their construction because they can get their labor cheaper, and this allows them to sometimes get the final products cheaper (sometimes it costs more to fix it because carpentry, unlike most migrant farm work, requires skilled labor).

Farms only hire immigrants because they will work cheaper and this allows them to sell their product at a lower price so they are competitive against imported food that would be produced with even lower labor costs. If we paid a living wage to harvest food, we would have to either import more or accept higher food prices - something most cash-strapped Americans wouldn't be able to do.

Many immigrants are only willing to work so cheap because they lost their farms when they couldn't compete with US farms who used undocumented labor while getting gov't subsidies they didn't get. They aren't living like refugees for fun.

It is a screwed up system, but just more enforcement of immigration laws on farms will only cause the jobs that are currently worked by migrants to be outsourced. The construction industry is different, because of skills and tools that are required of workers and because it can't be so easily outsourced. In this venue more penalties for those who employ undocumented workers could be effective. But we won't be able to really fix immigration until NAFTA and other policies that allow our trade imbalances are repealed.

[cddickey]

01:49 PM on 09/24/2010

I'm commenting after seeing his testimony.

Testifying 'in character' gives him 'creative license'. He makes many good points, if you're smart enough to understand them.

Bravo, Stephen!

[graciesgra]

03:16 PM on 09/24/2010

I didn't notice that he ever said he would testify in character; it was some Republican that said that.

[mancoff]

06:11 PM on 09/24/2010

Stephen Bolbert announced on his show the night before that he would appear in Character. Colbert's fans would know that even if he hadn't announced it. The real problem was Colbert was so like the right wing members of Congress it would have been hard to tell if someone didn't know he was a comedian. That is why the media and Congress are upset, they all looked in a mirror and saw their own reflection, the Right wingers were offended and the media was embarrased because they have let the "right" take the Congress get away with their childish, outrageous, bigoted remarks and because it was made for big stories and good ratings, etc, they didn't have the cojones to call Congress on it. They didn't want to call the people in Congress on their silly behavior but they critcize and are outraged by Colbert who told them he was coming in character. The media should have called out the as-Hole behavior for the past year and half by Partisan congress members, not Colbert,he simply shined a light on it.

[hey0there]

01:22 PM on 09/24/2010

he stayed 'in character' during his segment. it can hardly be called 'testimony'

[ladyjonquil]

10:20 AM on 09/25/2010

He's involved in farmworker rights for some time. Would this count?

"I like talking about people who don't have any power...I feel the need to speak for those who can't speak for themselves....We ask them to come and work, and then we ask them to leave again. They suffer, and have no rights."

He also quotes Matthew 25:40: "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

[GregHooper]

11:07 AM on 09/25/2010

Enogh with the guilt trip

Returning to your home country and not receiving an American Passport is not unkind nor is it going to destroy them as a human being

If you can pay $8500 for a Coyote to get here you can pay $85 for a Greyhound to take you home

Yes home their home just think of all the families that have been split up that will be reunited and all the hardworking and talented people who are such a benefit to society They will be back in their own countries using their energy to fix the problems there

I'm all for reuniting these families

In their home counties They can go home We are home

Give your job if it makes you feel so good