UPDATE: Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, arrived at Capital Hill in character and ready to talk about migrant workers, that is until Rep. John Conyers asked him to leave before the Congressional hearing even got started. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship & Border Security met to discuss immigration status on farm laborers in the U.S. Colbert, according to witnesses that also happen to be his fans, was heard to have replied to Rep. Conyers, “No hablo inglés.” Colbert proceeded to recite his prepared statement which was brief and laudatory about migrant workers.
UPDATE: Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central host, is due to testify before Congress tomorrow on the topic of immigration. Colbert will be joined by the United Farm Workers (WFW) President Arturo Rodriguez. Colbert will speak about his one day tenure as a farm worker picking vegetables on an upstate New York farm. Colbert ended up working on the farm after Rodriguez appeared on his show The Colbert Report touting the UFW’s “Take Our Jobs” campaign. The campaign encouraged people to apply for farm labor work, only seven people have taken the offer and one of them was Colbert.
ORIGINAL STORY: Arturo Rodriguez, President of United Farm Workers of America (UFW) made a guest appearance on The Colbert Report last night as promised. With black cowboy boots in tow, he stressed the important work farm workers are doing and laughed at Stephen Colbert’s jabs and demands “to give those jobs back to Americans”.
The UFW has been pushing for immigration reform and fighting the accusation that its 27,000 workers are taking jobs from Americans by launching www.takeourjobs.org. The initiative, a bit tongue-in-cheek, challenges American to come work in the fields; since launching the initiative only 4 Americans have signed up including Colbert, signing up last night. Of course he wanted to make sure he could have air conditioning and enjoy the farmers benefit of eating “all the lettuce they want”.
Rodriguez really showed his good humor when Colbert asked for his paper and he couldn’t find them.
See his appearance on The Colbert Report.
