Beach City Commission Objects to Candidate for Not Being — Guatemalan Enough?

A candidate for city manager in Lake Worth Beach, Fla., has criticized federal immigration enforcement and pandered to illegal aliens, but apparently the city commission is still worried he is not Guatemalan enough for a position in an American town.

Below, you can watch the city commission pondering whether or not Chris Rodriguez's Guatemalan ethnicity and limited familiarity with Spanish are enough to qualify him to be city manager. The primary speaker in the clip argues that because Rodriguez grew up identifying more with his Italian heritage and does not speak Spanish or any other foreign language fluently, he is “not a good fit for the city.” Yet the commissioner frankly admits that Rodriguez seems to have all the qualifications for the position.

BREAKING: The Lake Worth Beach City Commission moves to DISQUALIFY a candidate for City Manager because he's not Guatemalan enough. "He did not grow up very Guatemalan... he grew up pretty much Italian... he did not learn Spanish... he has no connection to the indigenous languages... just not a good fit for the city."

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I found an article from The Palm Beach Post  quoting Rodriguez, an assistant city administrator for Washington, D.C., and former CIA operative. Rodriguez bragged  about helping provide free legal representation for illegal aliens in our nation’s capital and reassured the many migrant residents of Lake Worth Beach that he would be happy to continue his anti-law efforts in the beach city. “We do not want families separated. We do not want people scared to go to school — I've experienced that in my community, in the District,” he pontificated.

Apparently, that wasn’t enough to placate all the foreigners who want to live in America and take our benefits but not assimilate or adopt any of our values. One city commissioner — seemingly Christopher McVoy  — explained, “On the Guatemalan [background], I thought initially, ‘Wow, that's cool.’ We did talk with him additionally. He did not grow up very Guatemalan. And he would be the first to tell you he grew up pretty much Italian. His mother was Italian. He did not learn Spanish growing up. He has no connection to the indigenous languages in Guatemala at all.”

At this point, another member of the commission interrupted with a comment that was not clearly audible in the video but seemed to make the case that Rodriguez had multilingual capabilities, because the first commissioner, McVoy, replied, “No, he [Rodriguez] doesn't. He's not even very comfortable in Spanish. And he regrets that, um, it's a source of friction, especially 'cause his father was a Spanish teacher here, but, um, it was a different time, and — and I respect both his father's decisions … and Mr. Rodriguez's frustration with it.”

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Perhaps realizing that he was in fact rambling, the commissioner returned to his ridiculous contention about Rodriguez’s qualifications. “But the reality is, is he does not have the connection that would actually be very cool for the community, but he doesn't have that. But overall, it's a question of fit, not a question of, of, you know, is he a smart guy? [Does he] present well? Those are all, I think, undisputable, [he’s] just not a good fit for the city.”

Again, this is a city in Florida. It’s not only in the United States; it’s in a red state. And yet the city commission is worried about the lack of foreign affiliations for a potential city official.

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