Bush administration steers immigrants away from English

New Hampshire Union Leader ^ | May 22, 2006 | DeRoy Murdock

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

"THE SUCCESS of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society, and embrace our common identity as Americans," President Bush declared Monday in his Oval Office address on immigration reform. "English allows newcomers to go from picking crops to opening a grocery, from cleaning offices to running offices, from a life of low-paying jobs to a diploma, a career and a home of their own."

As the son of legal Costa Rican immigrants whose mother learned English, taught in the Los Angeles City Schools and earned a master's degree from Pepperdine University, I found the President's words pertinent, touching and heartwarming.

How crushing, then, to discover Bush's remarks at jarring variance with federal policy. Rather than persuade immigrants to speak English and flourish — as have my parents, to their children's ultimate benefit — the Bush administration actively steers immigrants away from English while actually prosecuting those who expect immigrants to speak America's (and Earth's) lingua franca.

From ballot boxes to hospitals, workplaces and even the Internet, Bush's words and deeds are perpendicular to each other:

• The administration aggressively promotes multilingual voting. "The Civil Rights Division has made the vigorous enforcement of the Voting Rights Act's language-minority requirements one of its primary missions," Rena Comisac, principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, told the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee on May 4.

  "Since 2001, this administration has filed more minority-language cases under sections 4 and 203 than in the entire previous 26 years in which these provisions have been applicable," Comisac bragged.

  But DOJ will not rest! "And the pace is accelerating," Comisac continued. "The enforcement actions include cases in Florida, California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. Among these cases were the first suits ever filed under section 203 to protect Filipino and Vietnamese voters," who vote in their native languages. The administration supports legislation to extend multilingual voting through 2031.

  Orange County, Calif., Supervisor Chris Norby testified at this hearing that, under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, he already "must provide translations in Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean." Worse, he warned, "If these standards are left unchanged, after the 2010 Census, my county could be required to print ballots in Tagalog, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Farsi, depending on future immigration patterns.

• Bush reaffirmed President Bill Clinton's executive order that medical centers that accept federal money must provide free translators to foreign-language speakers. Noncompliance can constitute "national origin" discrimination under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It is expensive and cumbersome for health facilities that receive, say, Medicare reimbursements, to offer complimentary interpreters to non-English-speaking patients. Even if their relatives can handle such needs, federal bureaucrats can make providers furnish translators gratis and file discrimination charges against those who don't.

• Bush's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last Sept. 21 sued the Spring Sheet Metal Company in Rochester, N.Y., for $50,000 in damages, plus back wages and pain-and-suffering compensation, for a Cuban-born ex-employee. He screamed "Discrimination!" after his dismissal for speaking Spanish at work. The firm argues that its English-only policy helps laborers prevent accidents in a dynamic environment full of sharp, swiftly moving steel objects.

• Bush's hypocrisy is most vivid on his own Web site, WhiteHouse.gov. Click the "Espanol" button and read what he did today in Spanish. What incentive does this give Hispanic immigrants to learn English? Ninguno. None whatsoever.

• Bilingual-education reform shows the only progress. The Heritage Foundation reports that relevant outlays have soared from $410 million in fiscal year 2001 to $816 million in FY 2006, a fearsome 99 percent increase. However, in 2002, the responsible unit's name changed from the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs to today's Office of English Language Acquisition. "No Child Left Behind is putting pressure on local school districts to abandon failed bilingual education programs in favor of English immersion," says Ben Piper of Pro-English (proenglish.org).

Step two in stopping America's sprint up the Tower of Babel is to scrap divisive multilingualism and make government conduct official domestic business in English, with limited, commonsense exceptions (e.g., broadcasting Spanish-language tornado warnings and defending foreign criminal suspects in their native tongues).

Step one is for Bush to follow his assimilationist rhetoric and speak English out of just one side of his mouth.

New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a senior fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Arlington, Va.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[WorkingClassFilth]

How crushing, then, to discover Bush's remarks at jarring variance with federal policy.

Yeah, I know. I've been crushed ever since Jorge's love festival with Vicente back in 2001.

[MJY1288]

Isn't this author gay?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I have no idea, and quite frankly, I don't care if he is.

[MJY1288]

That's fine, But I think he may have an Axe to grind, especially when he doesn't quote an y contradictory remarks by the Potus, just policies of places like the EEOC, that's like quoting the ACLU,

I remember how Sullivan turned on Bush over the Gay Marriage thing, and this openly Homosexual is no different

[MJY1288]

LINK

[StopGlobalWhining]

Is GWB's puzzling push for an open border with Mexico being directed by George H.W. Bush?

Is someone else pulling the strings that GHWB dances to?

After all, he did promise us a New World Order.

[MJY1288]

Reading the article for the second time and I think this is a reach like I haven't seen in a long time, this guy isn't even good at propaganda

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

That's fine, But I think he may have an Axe to grind, especially when he doesn't quote an y contradictory remarks by the Potus, just policies of places like the EEOC, that's like quoting the ACLU,

Please read the first paragraph, and if you have any of these contradictory quotes by President Bush, please post them.

[MJY1288]

I don't have any, and neither does the Author

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Thanks for the link. I'm still not sure how DeRoy Murdock's homosexuality has anything to do with linguistic diversity under the Bush Administration. If you have any evidence that Murdock's commentary is revenge for Bush's support of a Traditional Marriage amendment or some such, please let us know.

[MJY1288]

All I was saying is that the Author is reaching in this article, He is claiming Bush doesn't want people to learn English, and his proof is weak very weak. I think he has an Axe to grind, and this article is all the proof I need, The Guy (or whatever he is behind closed doors) is not good at Propaganda.. That's all!

Have fun!

See Ya, these threads are way too predictable, Good Night!

[Gondring]

ping

[Gondring]

Bush's hypocrisy is most vivid on his own Web site, WhiteHouse.gov. Click the "Espanol" button and read what he did today in Spanish. What incentive does this give Hispanic immigrants to learn English? Ninguno. None whatsoever.

That's not an agency issue...that's a place where he could insist on English-only.

[MJY1288]

How can you convince a Hispanic speaking person to learn English if you don't communicate with him or her?, The White House Website could be ordered to print nothing but English and that would please you, but I doubt they would have ever read this line...

""THE SUCCESS of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society, and embrace our common identity as Americans," President Bush declared Monday in his Oval Office address on immigration reform. "English allows newcomers to go from picking crops to opening a grocery, from cleaning offices to running offices, from a life of low-paying jobs to a diploma, a career and a home of their own."

That looks and sounds like somebody trying to convince non English speaking Hispanics to learn English to me!!!!

[MJY1288]

You can't see the forrest for the Tree's my friend

[Gondring]

LOL! Actions speak louder than words, my FRiend.

And are you implying that the president doesn't care about any other immigrants learning English? If he cared, wouldn't he translate it all into Tagalog, Mandarin, Serbo-Croatian, etc.?

[Gondring]

You can't see the forrest for the Tree's my friend

Didn't realize you aren't an English speaker yourself! No offense meant! :-)

[MJY1288]

If we had 20 Million of any of them, I'm sure he would...

Your arguments are not much stronger that the limp wrister who wrote this tripe