Despite a hiring freeze in Washington State agencies, a preposterous position was recently concocted called Provider Navigator.  

One shudders at the H.R. groupthink behind defining the P.N.'s purpose: to increase access to quality health care for injured workers with limited English proficiency (LEP) and cultural needs that affect their claims and recovery. 

While other important positions are going unfilled, and important business is being delayed during the freeze, these P.N.s are receiving undeserved salaries to essentially schmooze with medical providers who operate under the workers' compensation system.

Sure, the providers must observe some protocols to do business with the state, but it's not their mission to mollycoddle LEP workers.  They might reach out voluntarily, but they shouldn't be coerced by the pretentious P.N.s under the aegis of the granny state.  Often, the workers' comp system needs providers more than providers need the bureaucratic rigmarole.

Why would immigrants have such limited English proficiency, anyway?  And what's with their special cultural needs?  English is one of the most spoken languages in the world.  Masses yearning to breathe free managed to learn it as they waved their American flags while passing the Statue of Liberty and through Ellis Island en route to America's plenty.

LEP immigrants don't deserve to be pampered by taxpayer-supported P.N.s if they are reluctant to learn English.  Research shows that Spanish-speakers aren't learning English as quickly as other immigrant groups. 

Part of the problem cited in the linked article is the testimonial that "they didn't wanna learn it [English language] as fast because they didn't need to use it."  How will P.N.s aiding and abetting them confront this failure? 

According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of Latinos believe that immigrants need to speak English to participate in our society — perhaps the minority should participate instead of relying on P.N. proxies.

Actually, what's disturbing is that the minority is so large — 41%!

One who values the vivid patchwork of cultures that blended into a beautiful E Pluribus Unum tapestry wonders: if they are LEP and have specific cultural needs, then did their employers properly vet them?  Per the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, workers are required to show I-9 documents proving their employment eligibility.  If the LEP worker is discovered to be interloping illegally, then for the sake of law and order in America, for the sake of citizens and legal immigrants, repercussions await.  After all, not only did they illegally insinuate themselves into our society, but they've perpetrated fraud while some hapless victim suffers the havoc of identity theft.

Americans are a humane and generous people, so we magnanimously provide LEP workers medical disability services if they are injured on the job.  This accords with court cases that affirm workers' compensation coverage even for the illegals.  However, P.N.s only further LEP worker dependency and isolation, making them a public charge.

Presuming they are not deported, do they want a better life, with more freedom and civic engagement, or will they succumb to the clingy clutches of Gov. Jay Inslee's officious minions?  With a little less hubris and a bit more commitment, one can graduate from LEP to E.P. — English-Proficient. 

It's really not that hard, as many of the more than billion people who've done it attest.  An additional benefit is that the very endeavor of learning a language fosters an appreciation for the culture — the two are inextricably linked. 

That should make P.N.s obsolete before they have a chance to navigate the immigrants to the public trough.

We can live up to our deserved moniker of "the last great hope of Earth" while preventing self-isolation and pockets of immigrant sanctuaries from dimming our shining light.  It's called muscular liberalism; it eviscerates whatever distorted rationale conceived the profligate Provider Navigator positions.

Spanish-speaking immigrants' slowness in learning English is a man-made crisis, brought on by government enabling.  For these immigrants' own good, it's time to make it more profitable for them to learn English than to remain unproficient.  

Instead of mollycoddling LEP workers, it's time to navigate the P.N.s to more productive employment...after the hiring freeze thaws.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.