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Official English
Bilingual Education
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Citizenship and
Immigration
Bilingual Ballots
Puerto Rican
Statehood
Ending E.O. 13166,
the "Multilingual Mandate"
Contact us:
1601 N. Kent St.
Suite 1100
Arlington, VA
22209
ph: (703) 816-8821
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English and Immigration
ProEnglish
believes English should be the official language of the United States. We
believe this is vital for preserving our national unity and the strength
of our democracy. To ensure our linguistic unity and promote the successful
assimilation of new immigrants, the United States has long required that
they learn English in order to naturalize i.e. become citizens.
Today, however, misguided public officials sometimes conduct naturalization
ceremonies in languages other than English. This undermines the English
requirement for citizenship and sends a false message that new immigrants
do not need to know English in order to participate fully in American
public life. Ill-considered amendments to the Voting Rights Act have further
diminished the need for English by mandating the printing of ballots and
voting materials in other languages whenever certain thresholds are met.
ProEnglish believes that this trend of officially accommodating foreign
languages for the acquisition and exercise of American citizenship is
both divisive and dangerous.
Therefore ProEnglish supports legislation that requires naturalization
ceremonies to be conducted exclusively in English, and abolishes all requirements
to provide ballot and voting materials in other languages.
*Click here to read an article about the importance for immigrants to learn English.
"Invaluable and Insignificant: A
Meditation on U.S. Citizenship," by ProEnglish
board member, Gerda
Bikales
Citizenship and immigration news archive
Outside resources:
U.S. Bureau
of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS)
Center
for Immigration Studies,
a non-partisan group dedicated to researching immigration issues
The
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
NumbersUSA,
an organization favoring immigration reform.
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