Stephen Colbert testifies before Congress about immigration

Today Stephen Colbert’s congressional testimony shed light on the complexities of having migrant agricultural workers in the United States and some of the issues in the bipartisan AgJOBS bill. Referring to free market capitalism, he said, “Even the Invisible Hand doesn’t want to pick beans.” He advocated offering more visas to immigrants because he said he now understands why Americans aren’t applying for these jobs.

Colbert emphasized how tough it was when he spent a day picking beans and packing corn through the Take Our Jobs program, which was designed to offer farm worker jobs to U.S. citizens. After Colbert’s testimony, Arturo Gonzalez, president of United Farm Workers of America, stated that despite a large number of visitor to their Web site, only seven people have been employed through the program.