Rep. Don Young (R-AK) used an ethnic slur to describe Mexican farm workers in an interview with a local station KRBD on Thursday.
“My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said while discussing economic trends of the last few decades. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”
Young’s “wetback” remark comes as the GOP is engaged in a large scale effort to win over Latino voters, who have been alienated by party members’ anti-immigration rhetoric and policies in recent years.
