ProEnglish gives Sen. Inhofe 1st-ever "Theodore Roosevelt American Unity Award"

K.C. McAlpin (right) presents aware to Sen. Inhofe

     ProEnglish awarded U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) with the Theodore Roosevelt American Unity Award in November. The award honors members of Congress who have shown outstanding leadership in the struggle to preserve English as the common, unifying language of our nation.
     "Senator Inhofe is a patriot and a champion of the cause of preserving our unity in the English language," said ProEnglish Board Chairman Bob Park. "In the 109th Congress Sen. Inhofe delivered the first vote in the Senate on making English the official language in over twenty years. He also introduced the first stand-alone official English bill in the Senate in almost a decade."
     In May the Senate voted 62-35 for the Inhofe amendment to make English the national language. The amendment was added to the Senate immigration bill. But the House refused to take up the Senate bill over the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrants, effectively killing Sen. Inhofe's amendment.
     "Senator Inhofe truly deserves this award," added Park. "It was his determination in the face of stiff opposition from then Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that succeeded in forcing the Senate to vote."
     Sen. Inhofe is the first recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt American Unity Award. ProEnglish plans to present the award to the most deserving member of Congress in each two-year session. Park said Sen. Inhofe was one of several outstanding nominees for the award.
     The award is named after President Theodore Roosevelt because of the 26th president's outstanding commitment to English and his promotion of the 'Melting Pot' ideal for U.S. society.

ProEnglish defends city's official English law
     Hazleton Pennsylvania, pop. 25,000, about ninety miles north of Philadelphia, made national headlines this summer after passing an ordinance to deter illegal immigrants that contained a provision declaring English its official language. The city's action triggered a wave of similar ordinances and inquiries from other cities and towns around the country that are experiencing similar influxes of non-English speaking illegal immigrants. The ACLU promptly filed suit on behalf of several Hispanic individuals and advocacy groups to block the city's action.
     After learning about the case ProEnglish contacted Hazleton's mayor, Lou Barletta, to offer its legal assistance. The offer was accepted. Then acting on the advice of ProEnglish and other legal advisors, the city rescinded its first ordinance and replaced it with ones that dealt with illegal immigrants and official English as separate issues.
     The ACLU then re-filed its complaint challenging the new ordinances and got US District Judge James M. Munley to issue a temporary restraining order Oct. 31st barring the city from enforcing the ordinances pending a trial.
     ProEnglish Chairman Bob Park said ProEnglish was committed to helping Hazleton defend its official English ordinance from legal attack. He singled out Mayor Barletta for praise: "The Mayor has emerged as an articulate and courageous leader whose determination to protect and care for the welfare of the citizens of his hometown led him to take the actions he did. Unfortunately, he has been subjected to the typical name-calling that our opponents use because they lack legitimate arguments."
     Park pointed out that ProEnglish has posted a model official English ordinance on its website, www.proenglish.org, and has helped a number of other municipalities around the country who are interested in following Hazleton's example.

Court slams Justice Dept. definition of 'LEP'
     A federal circuit court panel sharply in Pennsylvania sharply criticized the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) when it turned down an emergency DOJ request to send federal observers to Philadelphia to monitor the city's compliance with the bilingual ballot provisions of the Voting Rights Act in the November elections.
     The Voting Rights Act requires state and local governments to provide foreign-language ballots and unspecified election assistance if at least 10,000 or 5 percent of eligible voters are 'limited English proficient,' and are members of certain language minority groups. Under the Bush Administration DOJ has used the assistance provision to make aggressive demands on local governments including demands to conduct voter outreach campaigns in foreign languages, hire bilingual poll workers, and accept federal monitors etc.
     In its decision the court zeroed in on the government's definition of limited English proficient voters as seriously flawed.
     ". . . the Government asks us to presume that citizens who identified themselves as speaking English 'well,' 'not well,' and 'not at all' are limited English proficient," stated the 13-page ruling.
     The decision continued, "The subjective judgment of a sole statistician that any voter who speaks English less than 'very well' is unable to participate substantively in the electoral process is not enough to satisfy the Government's burden."
     "In other words, the government is counting people who tell the Census they speak English 'well' as 'limited English proficient," said K.C. McAlpin, executive director of ProEnglish. "The court's decision is important because it rejects that definition of LEP voters which defies common sense and which vastly inflates the number of jurisdictions that have to provide bilingual ballots."

Mitt Romney:
Teach English via immersion
     Appearing at an Iowa campaign event this fall, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney reiterated his strong stand in favor of English immersion techniques for teaching non-English speaking students: "If you're going to be successful in America, you have to speak the language of the land."
     Gov. Romney is one of the few well-known political leaders in the country to back English immersion instead of politically correct "bilingual education" programs that have failed to teach English to non-English speaking students for more than thirty years.
     The Republican Governor who is leaving office this Jan., was elected in 2002, the same year Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative to scrap the nation's oldest bilingual-education program in favor of immersion.
     That initiative campaign was led by Dr. Rosalie Pedalino Porter, a member of ProEnglish's board, and Lincoln Tamayo, a prominent educator and high school principal.

Census confirms immersion success in California
     Since California voters passed a 1998 initiative replacing bilingual education programs with English immersion teaching techniques in their public schools, statewide tests have shown dramatic improvements in the English speaking skills of students from Spanish-speaking homes. Now, an analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms the good news in another way.
     According to the 2005 American Community Survey, 71 percent of California children in homes where the primary language is Spanish now speak English "very well." That's up from 60 percent in just five years.
     And the trend is accelerating. Just last year the number that speak English "very well" jumped nearly 5 percent, while the number who spoke English "not well" or "not at all" fell even more - by 14 percent.
     The 2000 Census revealed that California is home to more than one third of all children in the U.S. who speak a language other than English at home. Before voters passed Proposition 227 in 1998, California required most schools to put non-English speaking students in so-called "bilingual education" classrooms where they were taught primarily in their native language, instead of in English.

Trustee says Dallas hiring teachers that don't speak English
     Dallas Independent School District (DISD) officials came under fire in Oct. after School Board Trustee Ron Price said that some of the district's bilingual education teachers cannot speak English.
     "We have several teachers here who do not speak English at all," said Price. "We are creating a language [form of] segregation."
     Dallas Schools Superintendent Michael Hinojosa disputed the charge.
     "If there are teachers out there who don't speak English, I need to know about it," said Hinojosa, according to a CBS 11 News interview. "I've spoken with individuals who claim there are teachers who don't speak English to give me names, and I've not received one name."
     DISD officials hired 300 teachers specifically to teach Spanish-speaking students in the district's bilingual education program last summer, including teachers from Spain. Hinojosa claimed all bilingual teachers are tested to make sure they speak English.

UK schoolgirl jailed for transfer request to English-speaking group
     As reported in the London Daily Mail Oct. 13, a UK school girl was charged with a "racial offense," after asking to transfer to another study group because the other five students in her group spoke in Urdu, a language she could not understand. When 14-year old Codie Stott made her plea explaining that only one other student in her group spoke English, her teacher called her request "racist" and told her the police would handle her.
     Codie was pulled out of her Manchester classroom and put in isolation for the rest of the day. A week later she was arrested by the police, jailed for three and a half hours, and released without charge.
     Headmaster Antony Edkins defended the school's action, "An allegation of a serious nature was made concerning a racially motivated remark by one student towards a group of Asian students new to the school and new to the country. We aim to ensure a caring and tolerant attitude towards people and pupils of all ethnic backgrounds and will not stand for racism in any form."
     But Robert Whelan, deputy director of the British think-tank, Civitas, said, "A lot of these arrests don't result in prosecutions - (their) aim is to frighten us into self-censorship until we watch everything we say."

Translations cost EU parlia-mentarians $150,000 a day
     According to a Sept. 12, 2006 article in The Christian Science Monitor, it costs European Union (EU) taxpayers approximately $150,000 a day to operate their parliament in the EU's 21 official languages. The article, "In European parliament, debate-in 21 languages-can be pricey," recounts that an enterprising Finn named Alexander Stubb tried and failed to persuade the EU to operate in only three languages, which could have reduced the parliament's translation costs as much as 92 percent.
     The article recounted some of the recurring problems that arise because of the complexity of doing translations for 21 languages, including occasions when a translator who can't translate the sense of a joke a speaker is telling will ask his audience to laugh anyway as a favor to the translator. This can result in embarrassment when, because of the delay in translation, the audience breaks out laughing long after the speaker has returned to making a serious point.

'Language graveyard' study discredited
     A report entitled "Linguistic Life Expectancies: Immigrant Language Retention in Southern California" in the September 2006 issue of Population and Development Review, argues that by the third generation research shows immigrants in the U.S. have switched to English and lost the ability to speak their ancestors' native tongue. The article by Frank Bean and Ruben Rumbaut, two sociologists at the University of California, Irvine, and Douglas Massey, a sociologist at Princeton was widely touted in the media as 'evidence' that adopting official English laws was unnecessary.
     But a ProEnglish press release quickly pointed out that the report was misleading because it relied on the experience of immigrant families who came to the U.S. when non-English speaking immigration was relatively low and the need to learn English and assimilate was not in question. "They are comparing apples and oranges," said ProEnglish Executive Director, K.C. McAlpin. "Census data clearly shows the U.S. today is in new and un-chartered waters in terms of immigration, assimilation, and the acquisition of English. For example, the number of residents the Census classifies as 'linguistically isolated,' grew to almost 12 million by 2000, an increase of more than 50 percent in a single decade." Recent Census data also shows that the change-over to speaking English is slower in the Spanish-speaking population. "With the English Language Unity Act, H.R. 997 by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a bipartisan official English bill backed by 164 co-sponsors pending in the House, and Senate passage of an amendment declaring English our 'national language' last May, these left-wing academics panicked at the prospect that Congress might pass this legislation," said McAlpin. "So they recycled previously published research and got a sympathetic journal to publish their 'report' in a transparent attempt to influence the debate," he added.
     "The authors are clearly biased against a common American language and culture," continued McAlpin. "While most Americans feel we are in danger of losing English's role as the common unifying language of our nation, these sociology professors see the opposite. They worry that immigrants will stop speaking their native language, which they want to actively discourage."
     

Landslide victory for official English in Arizona!
     By a stunning 3-1 landslide vote, 74-26 percent, Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment to their state constitution declaring English the state's official language. Arizona is now the 28th state with English as its official language.
     The vote was a resounding victory for State Rep. Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) who pushed the referendum through the legislature over the opposition of Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano to put the measure on the ballot in November. Exit polls showed the measure won almost 50 percent of the Hispanic vote, debunking the claims of many Hispanic activists and immigrants' rights groups who tried to characterize the measure as "anti-Hispanic."
     The amendment stipulates that all official actions of the state must be conducted in English, and bars discrimination against English speakers. It has common sense exceptions to protect the use of other languages in private speech, and for government use to protect public health and safety.
     Arizona passed official English once before, in 1988, through a citizen's initiative campaign organized and led by ProEnglish Chairman Bob Park. When state officials refused to defend the law in court, Park and other ProEnglish board members founded ProEnglish to carry on the fight. A ten-year legal battle seemed to culminate in victory when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the case moot and reversed the lower court rulings blocking the law.
     But the victory proved illusory after the law was challenged in state court and later overturned by the Arizona Supreme Court citing specific provisions as violating the state constitution. The amendment that passed this Nov. was modified to pass court scrutiny.
     ProEnglish Chairman Bob Park praised Rep. Pearce for his determination and leadership. "I think even Rep. Pearce was surprised by the lopsided vote in favor of Proposition 103. Not only has he performed a great service to the people of Arizona by allowing their voice to be heard on this important question, but he also has given a huge boost to those of us working at the national level to make English our official language," Park said.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's secret of success
     "That means not just working, physically working, but it means ... that you learn the language, that you learn the history of America ... and (that) you have to become part of America."
-- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking on the secret of his success during a speech in Los Angeles' Chinatown, Oct. 10, 2006

GOP 109th Congress fumbles ball on official English
     Despite polls showing 85 percent of the American people in favor of making English the official language, and the existence of a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by no fewer than 164 House members (H.R. 997), GOP Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader John Boehner refused to take up official English legislation in the final days of the 109th Congress. Instead they devoted the time they had left to bills banning Internet gambling and the slaughter wild horses - issues that pale in comparison in terms of their importance and their support by a broad segment of the electorate.
     ProEnglish Chairman Bob Park said, "The failure of these leaders to bring an official English bill to the House floor for a vote, especially after the Republican Senate passed an amendment to an immigration bill declaring English our national language, is inexcusable. I hope we will never look back and see the 109th Congress as the moment when we lost the opportunity to avoid the pitfalls and conflicts that characterize societies divided by language," he added.
     Park noted that neither House leader could say they were unaware of the public's desire to make English the official language. This summer ProEnglish ran radio ad campaigns in the districts of each that generated thousands of calls from their constituents in support of official English. And ProEnglish members flooded their Capitol Hill offices with tens of thousands of postcards, faxes, and emails urging them to bring official English legislation up for a vote.
     "While they were choosing to ignore their constituents and the overwhelming desire of the American people to pass official English legislation, these GOP leaders found the time to team up with Democrats and override the opposition of 80 percent of their Republican colleagues in the House in order to renew bilingual ballots for another 25 years," said Park. "Now that the Republicans have lost control of the House, we hope they will choose leaders more responsive to the American people," he added.

Democratic Congress unlikely to halt momentum for official English
     At first glance the Democratic takeover of Congress would seem to make it harder to pass official English legislation in the 110th Congress. More than a dozen strong supporters of official English lost their bids for reelection. And the congressional committees with jurisdiction on the language issue will now be chaired by leaders known to be opposed.
     But many congressional observers think that it will be hard for Democratic leaders to resist the public's growing demand to make English the official language, which enjoys overwhelming support among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. This was shown by two national polls this year that measured public support at 84 and 85 percent respectively. The polls were underscored by the lopsided 3-1 vote in favor of an Arizona referendum making English the state's official language this Nov.
     The 109th Congress saw major progress toward passage of official English legislation. This included Senate passage of an amendment declaring English our 'national language,' although the underlying bill ultimately failed to pass the House. The House held a hearing on official English. And Rep. Steve King's House bill, H.R. 997, to make English the official language, attracted a record 164 bipartisan co-sponsors.
     This Congress also witnessed the emergence of Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) as the Senate's leading champion of official English. That could be critical in a Democratic Congress because Senators have far more freedom to introduce amendments than their rule-restricted colleagues in the House.
     "It is rare for a piece of legislation with significant long-term implications for our country to pass in the course of a single Congress," said ProEnglish Government Relations Director Ben Piper. "What I want our supporters to know is that we made enormous strides toward achieving our goal this last year. And we are totally committed to building on that progress and to keep fighting until our nation's future as a country united by language is assured," he added.
     
Florida county agrees to spend $405K more for bilingual ballots
     The record $3.7 million Broward County, Florida spent holding its election this Nov. just went higher. County officials reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in October that will require the county to spend an additional $405,000 a year for voting assistance in Spanish.
     County officials agreed to the change after DOJ lawyers threatened to charge the county with violating the foreign-language election requirements of the Voting Rights Act.
     The action came after DOJ determined there were more than 10,000 voting age Hispanic citizens in Broward "who do not speak English well enough to participate effectively in the English language election process." In the agreement, however, county officials promised to go far beyond what the law requires. In addition to making ballots available in Spanish, the county pledged to mount a Spanish-language multimedia education campaign and step up efforts to recruit Spanish-speaking poll workers. The agreement stipulates that there will be at least one Spanish-speaking poll worker in each of the county's 773 precincts.
     And using a type of ethnic profiling favored by DOJ, in precincts with more than 500 "Spanish surnamed" voters, the county has to hire three Spanish-speaking poll workers.
Florida congressmen who voted to reauthorize bilingual ballots for 25 years:
Rep. F. Allen Boyd, Jr. (D-2nd)
Rep. Corrine Brown (D-3rd)
Rep. Jim Davis (D-11th)
Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-17th)
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-18th)
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-19th)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-20th)
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-21st)
Rep. Clay Shaw (R-22nd)
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-23rd)
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25th)

Schwarzenegger criticized for comments on assimilation
     Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger drew the ire of the ethnic grievance lobby when he stressed the importance of learning English to his own success as an immigrant, and suggested that some Mexican immigrants have problems assimilating in remarks he made at a campaign event in Los Angeles' Chinatown.
     "You know, when I came over here the first thing I did was, I said, 'I've got to study English. I've got to go and study English and read English, and read the English papers," said Schwarzenegger. "I've got to go and watch English television, English radio, and hang out with English-speaking people,' because I knew that my success would come from knowing the language."
     But the governor went on to suggest that some Mexican immigrants are not assimilating.
     "And that is very difficult for some people to do, especially, I think, for Mexicans, because they are so close to their country here, so they try to stay Mexican but try to be in America . . .," Schwarzenegger said in response to a reporter's question. "[W]hat I am saying to the Mexicans is, you've got to go and immerse yourself, and assimilate into the American culture, and become part of the American fabric. That is how Americans will embrace you."
     U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) told reporters afterward that the governor's comments showed an "utter disregard" for Hispanics, according to The Sacramento Bee. "It is not the governor's place to tell immigrants to abandon their culture and language," added Solis, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Multilingual wonderland
     "I said 'I'm not being funny, but can I change groups because I can't understand them?' But (the teacher) started shouting and screaming, saying 'It's racist, you're going to get done in by the police'."
--Fourteen-year old Codie Stott speaking about her teacher's reaction after she asked to be transferred to a different class study group because only one of other five students in her group spoke English, so group discussions were conducted in Urdu
fromThe London Daily Mail, (U.K.) Oct. 13, 2006.

Press "3" for Mixtec
Many Mexicans know neither English nor Spanish 
    A growing number of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. do not speak English or Spanish. Instead, they speak indigenous Indian languages like Triqui, Mixtec, Zapotec, which are spoken in some of the poorest regions in Mexico.
     "It was hard at first," said Simon Santol, a 28-year old migrant worker, according to the Associated Press. "We would look for someone who spoke our language and Spanish. Now I have learned a little Spanish. Grace of God."
     Although it is not known how many such people cross the border each year, estimates put the number of Mixtec speakers in the U.S. from Oaxaca alone at 100,000. Most are migrant workers in Oregon and California's Central Valley.
     Their numbers have grown since the North American Free Trade Agreement opened up Mexico to U.S. imports in 1994.
     "Now corn sent by the United States is real cheap, there's no return for us," said Leon Ciovasquez, spokesman for the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations. "There's no point in continuing [to farm in Mexico]."
     In Oregon, court officials are struggling to find enough interpreters to keep pace with the growing number indigenous-language cases.
     And about 60 percent of the state's Mexican workers are from indigenous populations, according to Ramon Ramirez, who heads a farm worker union, and often form their own networks to aide their migration.
     "Ten or 20 years ago you didn't see that," said Guillermo Meneses, who studies migration at the Colegio Frontera del Norte in Tijuana, Mexico.

Mexican 'bi-nationality' movement threatens U.S. melting pot ideal
     A growing segment of the U.S. immigrant population may have no intention of assimilating to mainstream U.S. culture.
     Evidence of this was on display earlier this year when hundreds of thousands of immigrant protestors waved Mexican and other foreign flags and demanded rights in Spanish during protests over immigration bills passed by Congress.
     A recent Dallas Morning News article, titled "Mexican, American - or both?" highlighted the trend.
     "We're never giving up our Mexican roots," said Maria Cantu-Dougala, assistant vice president of Second Federal Savings bank in Chicago and an American citizen, according to the Dallas Morning News article. "I still consider myself Mexican. That's where we're so different from other immigrants. We just can't give it up."
     Jonathan Fox, a migration expert and political science professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, uses the term 'civic bi-nationality' to describe the phenomenon of Mexicans striving to be members of both U.S. and Mexican societies.
     Many immigrants from Mexico want to go from being "less than a full member of either society to a full member of both societies," according to Fox.
     'Immigrants' rights' groups, like the Bi-national Front of Indigenous Organizations and the National Council of La Raza, are driving the anti-assimilation sentiment. These groups help new immigrants maintain links with their hometowns in Mexico and indoctrinate newcomers with the idea that they do not have to learn English and assimilate.
     "The migrant organization reflect broader changes in civic bi-nationality and also drive them," said Fox.
     A recent Pew Hispanic Center survey found that most Hispanics still believe immigrants should speak English to be part of American society. Yet a significant minority - 41 percent - said they believe learning English is not important.
     Roberto Chavarria, a 46-year old Dallas businessman who arrived from Mexico when he was 14, said he does not really consider becoming a citizen. "I don't think it is so easy to change to a citizenship one doesn't really feel," Chavarria said. "Very few do it with conviction; they do it more for [immigration] reasons."