Disparaging remarks aimed at migrant workers got resident House rabble-rouser Douglas Bruce banned from speaking on a temporary-worker bill today.

“We don’t need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in the state of Colorado,” Bruce, R-Colorado Springs, told the chamber to an audible gasp.

Rep. Kathleen Curry, leading the House at the time, immediately barred Bruce from speaking at the podium, an uncommon maneuver.

“How dare you?” she asked Bruce, before House members moved back to discussion of a bill aimed at helping seasonal farm workers from other countries enter the state legally on a temporary basis.

The pilot program, which sets up liaisons in Mexico to assist foreign workers, would allow up to 5,000 laborers into Colorado over five years.

Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, said that as the “son of illiterate slaves who built this country” he found Bruce’s remark bigoted and said it may prompt an ethics investigation.

“He clearly violated the decorum of the House,” said Carroll, the assistant majority leader. “It was premeditated bigotry. Doug Bruce is not a stupid man. He thinks about what he’s going to say.”

If an investigation takes form, it would be the second of Bruce’s short statehouse career. The freshman lawmaker faced censure earlier this year for kicking a news photographer.

Republicans later removed him the powerful State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee because he refused to co-sponsor a resolution honoring military veterans.

Bruce said he believed resolutions were a waste of time because they have no legal impact.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.