I say let the prisoners pick the fruits.

—Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Republican from California, criticizing a Senate bill that would provide an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants the opportunity to become U.S. citizens. Rather than turning to immigrant farm workers, Rohrabacher said, the agricultural industry should instead rely upon the country’s homegrown inmate population, currently the world’s largest, at 2.1 million. Another House Republican, Rep. Steve King of Iowa, said that “anybody that votes for an amnesty bill deserves to be branded with a scarlet letter A&rdquo — reminding Americans of a kinder, gentler time in our nation’s history, when “witch hunt” was not yet a quaint figure of speech.

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen