Comic Stephen Colbert can’t pick beans—or at the least, he finds the task uncomfortable—and that warrants testimony before Congress on Friday. I’ve picked beans, dug up peanuts and pulled strawberries. There’s almost nothing I haven’t done when it comes to putting your own food on the table, including the unpleasant business of taking a chicken from barnyard to table. It’s bad enough we have a comic setting the tone for testimony about one of our nation’s greatest challenges. It’s quite another that his testimony points to the straw man in a big field Congress appears to be ignorant about.
If field workers represented the only challenge in immigration policy and procedure, we could count ourselves lucky.
Immigration documents are far more complex than filling a need for someone to pick beans.
The workforce also attracts bricklayers, software engineers, hotel employees, physicians and just about any other type of skilled worker you can think of.
Documents and workers flow not only across the border without respect for federal law, they flow through trade agreements and treaties and different federal agencies.
If Congress had to rely on one organization to make sense of immigration, the Center for Immigration Studies would be the place to begin.
The backgrounders alone are superior to any information the US government supplies the public.
What should the government do about employers—large landscaping conglomerates, large construction companies, corporate hotel entities, ski resorts—who repeatedly err in their hiring practices? What do we do about those who overstay their visas? Why does our government embrace discriminatory policy that loads up the population with one culture and ignores pleas from others? Why does the government operate immigration programs at a financial loss? Why are immigration attorneys the primary legal beneficiaries of US immigration policy? How does the government plan to fund amnesty and on what levels will amnesty occur? How will the government fund all the new employees needed to ensure the oversight that went missing in 1986?
Above all, Washington should be discussing the failed amnesty of 1986, the chain migration that ensued and created a significant portion of the problems we face today and the dramatic impact on entitlements for US citizens.
Colbert’s testimony illustrates Washington’s lack of respect for the American people and Congress’ ignorance of the immigration issue. Whether Colbert does well or acts sincerely is not the issue. Picking beans is hard work. I could’ve told Congress that and so could anyone who has ever had a garden. (Commentary by Kay B. Day/Sept. 24, 2010)
Monday, June 18, 2012 at 10:22AM 
Medallion marking the spot where the US and Mexico borders meet. [Customs and Border Patrol photo by James R. Tourtellotte]President Barack Obama’s blueprint for “deferred action”—de facto amnesty—is posted at the Dept. of Homeland Security.
