Doug Bruce Calls Mexican Workers ‘Illiterate Peasants’
DENVER – Republican Rep. Douglas Bruce was ordered to leave the podium of the Colorado House of Representatives Mondayafter calling Mexican workers “illiterate peasants.”
Bruce made the comment during a debate on a bill that would allow the state to help immigrant workers get temporary visas from the federal government.
It wasn’t Bruce’s first run-in at the Capitol. In January he became the first Colorado lawmaker censured by the House after he kicked a newspaper photographer for taking his picture during a prayer.
Opposition party leaders say this latest incident could cost Bruce his post. That’s because Bruce was warned not to attack illegal immigrants in his opposition to a bill being discussed on the House floor when he made what one lawmaker calls an unforgivable comment.
“This is uncharted territory for the Chamber we don’t normally have people committing premeditated acts of bigotry on the floor of the House,” says Assistant House Majority Leader Terrance Carroll.
Carroll says he’s not sure if another censure is the right call for the Colorado Springs legislator. Carroll says expulsion could be the next step if a formal complaint is filed by a House member against Bruce and an ethics committee finds he did something wrong.
Bruce was forced from the podium but not banned from further state business and is still a “full-fledged member” of the House.
Bruce defends his words and challenges other lawmakers to prove his statement wrong.
“What’s unethical?” he asks. “Did I say anything that wasn’t true?”
