The most important time to make English the official language
“We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language …” ~Teddy Roosevelt, January 3, 1919
Nothing binds us together as Americans more than the English language. For most Americans outside of the Acela corridor, the expectation that immigrants learn English cuts across partisan lines as a common-sense imperative to sustain our civilization. Yet left-wing reporters think there is something hateful and revolutionary about the principle established in the RAISE Act that immigrants who speak English should be awarded priority status in a merit-based system...
Our true history of immigration and Americanization
There was a time when the initiative to make English the official language of the country was a moot point. Until recent decades, the culture, government, and education system never catered to the balkanization of America or accommodated different languages, and thus, the de facto language was always the American mother tongue... The school system was pure red, white, and blue...
At the time when Teddy Roosevelt made his comments about immigrants learning English, our nation stood at the end of the largest wave of immigration until that point. He wanted to make sure those timeless values continued and that Americanism persisted. This was a bipartisan and universal view expressed by all major political leaders at the time. In fact, as I note in “Stolen Sovereignty,” when Congress decided to shut off immigration on February 22, 1921 (temporarily, until the long-term bill was developed in 1924), the bill passed the Senate 78-1 and passed the House without a recorded vote!...
The proliferation of bilingualism
In reality, now more than ever, we must ensure that English becomes the official language of America once and for all. Our school system is spending money like there’s no tomorrow catering to bilingual education. These “ELL” (Emerging Language Learner) programs, which receive grants from the federal government, have identified 4.9 million children enrolled as limited English proficient (LEP), according to the Migration Policy Institute. That is nearly 10 percent of the entire K-12 enrollment in the country, and those are only the ones officially identified as part of an ELL program. Eleven states have ELL enrollments comprising more than 10 percent of total K-12 student population, and in California that number is 24.5 percent! One in every four children in the entire massive state of California is not proficient in English! And this is the state average. Some urban areas, such as the Anaheim City school district, have a 60 percent ELL enrollment rate.
Most disturbing is that 77 percent of the LEP children are native-born children of immigrants. Which demonstrates that assimilation into the language and culture is nothing like it used to be, most likely because our culture and government cater to and in encourage balkanization...
Within this reality, it is easy to see why prioritizing English proficiency in the merit-based system for immigration should be one of our foremost objectives now more than ever.
Moreover, it’s time to go a step further and codify English as the official language for government business, programs, and grants. Congress should also re-introduce the 1996 bill that passed the House, which would have repealed the requirement to offer bilingual ballots. It should also remove any mandates on the states that either directly force them to cater to the balkanization agenda or open them up to private litigation...