By By Brendan O’Reilly
On Nov. 28 President Bush said, “We must continue to welcome legal immigrants and help them learn the customs and values that unite all Americans, including…the English language.” He repeated the statement in his weekly radio address, which is available in both Spanish and English at whitehouse.gov.
Bush’s assertion was good news for organizations like U.S. English, Inc. and ProEnglish. ProEnglish says it is the nation’s leading advocate of English as the official language of America. U.S. English describes itself as “the nation’s oldest, largest citizens’ action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States.”
U.S. English exaggerates the supposed “unifying role” of the English language. The nation has remained united for 229 years, with one exception, without ever declaring a national language.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) believes that English should be declared the official language of the United States. As a member of the Iowa Senate, the first piece of legislation he pushed through declared English the official state language. This March King introduced a bill in the House that would make English the official language of the United States, establish an English language rule for naturalization and require government dealings to be conducted in English. The bill is titled the “English Language Unity Act of 2005.” In 1996, a similar bill titled the “Emerson English Language Empowerment Act,” passed in the House, but stalled in the Senate.
King, his 143 co-sponsors and English advocacy groups are not trying to unite America. They want to shape the U.S national identity through legislation. The supporters of an official language claim to have immigrants’ best interest in mind, because they say learning English will supposedly help them integrate into American society and give them more opportunities.
That’s a façade. The bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It will discourage immigration from non-English speaking countries. Its sponsors desire to make America an Anglo-Saxon country rather than a bastion of multi-culturalism. Their idea of integration is for immigrants to renounce all of the culture and traditions from their country of origin. Allowing people to retain their first language after immigrating to America has provided diversity in the nation. Our national identity should be shared by all born citizens and naturalized immigrants and not limited to those people who happen to have been born in an English speaking family.
King’s bill has not made news headlines since its introduction. It was referred to the House subcommittee on the Constitution in April and has resided there ever since. But now that Bush made it part of his immigration and border security agenda, the bill has a chance of landing on the House floor.
Those immediately hurt if this bill is passed are muted to most Americans because of the language barrier, but the loss in culture would ultimately hurt this country as a whole. I hope that non-English speaking citizens, immigrants and guests will find advocates in the media and on Capitol Hill – for their sake and the nations.