I have lived in this community for 30 years and have served as a translator for 15. I am a bilingual American woman and on many occasions serve as a medium to ease the communication gaps that exist.
It never ceases to amaze me that many women in our community who are working in public offices bring their personal opinions on matters of immigration into the workplace and impose their opinions upon me and the immigrants I serve.
I provide a service for these women as well, yet they continually attack me as if I were an illegal alien they are so opposed to. Regardless, if I were it still is not their place to express their opinions in the workplace. In most of these offices, their job description is to take information, not to decide whether or not the clients qualify for benefits or services.
I wish they would show a little gratitude towards me for the service I am providing and do their jobs. I wish they would keep their misguided and uninformed opinions to themselves and stop acting as if their salary were affected by whether or not someone receives social services or a birth certificate.
The experience I had today was one of the harshest. I entered the Health Department in the Court House to help fill out a paternity affidavit. The mother of the child did not have a state ID because the state of Indiana will not issue ID's to undocumented immigrants.
The two women working at 3:30 p.m. attacked me verbally and treated me with an unbelievable lack of respect. The only thing this couple needed was to know what documents they needed to obtain a birth certificate for their American born son to an American father and immigrant mother and an appointment to fill out the paternity affidavit.
As a result, I was verbally attacked; the women openly presented their negative opinions of "illegals" and humiliated a tax-paying citizen and his wife. I was offering a service to make their job easier and was insulted.
To the ladies at the Health Department in the Court House:
A suggestion: just do your job and if you don't like it, or can't handle the respect it takes to treat people justly, get another job that doesn't require personal interaction. Take the information required and shut up. Keep your opinions to yourself and have the maturity required to treat all people with respect whether you agree with their status or not. Seek to understand what it takes to be a "legal" immigrant so you might be a little less judgmental next time one seeks the services offered at the Health Department. And be grateful when someone comes to make your job easier.
Your income isn't affected by the services these people receive but I do hope your employers will evaluate your value as an employee by the way you treat everyone who enters your office. I hope you will reevaluate the way you express your racist opinions and keep them out of the office.
