Supervisor raps Trump immigration comments
Town has appointed Spanish-speaking liaison to help residents with services
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. » The town supervisor said on Thursday that President Donald Trump is “an asshole.”
The strongly worded comments by supervisor Bill McKenna came in response to Trump reportedly using the word “shithole” to refer to African countries and saying he would prefer immigrants from countries such as Norway.
McKenna contends Trump’s attitude about immigrants who are not Caucasian have led to the need for assistance to a vulnerable population.
“The man’s an asshole, what else can I say?” he said. “Some countries are not as fortunate as the United States. We’re all equal, and all human beings are of equal worth and value to society. For him to think any less is just ludicrous.”
Three days before the president’s reported comments, Town Board members appointed a Spanish-speaking liaison that can help residents with services, which McKenna said was in direct response to events of the past year.
“Of course it was,” McKenna said. “Last year when I came in as supervisor it was right in front of me. We had a president coming in who didn’t seem to care about anyone but his own little circle. He says disgusting disgraceful things about all kinds of immigrants.”
McKenna on Thursday said the designation of Alba Giron to provide assistance was important because government services are already hard enough to obtain without being hindered by a language barrier.
“She’s helped from time to time with individuals who I can’t communicate with because my Spanish is lousy,” he said. “She’s also helped bring some people to my attention that maybe could use a little bit of a hand. So she’s my ambassador to that community.”
McKenna noted that two people in the town clerk’s office are fluent in Spanish but other situations have arisen that required translation.
“There was an individual who had his green card and was having difficulty with he driver’s license being renewed and there was some concern when he was requested to come down to the (state Department of Motor Vehicles) for an interview,” he said. “Alba brought this to my attention and I was able to go down and help him better understand what the DMV was looking for, and everything worked out fine.”
McKenna did not have statistics for the Spanishspeaking population in Woodstock but he believes it has been increasing a “little bit” every year.