ProEnglish Files New Lawsuit Challenging EO 13166

Dr. Cliff Colwell, Jr.

Appearing at a San Diego press conference Aug. 30, ProEnglish Chairman Bob Park announced that ProEnglish and several co-plaintiffs had renewed the fight to get Executive Order 13166 (EO 13166) overturned, and filed suit in federal court.     The ProEnglish complaint challenges the legality of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rules requiring

federal funds recipients to provide translation services for non-English speaking persons. HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson and the agency itself are named as defendants.
    HHS first issued its policy in August 2000 soon after President Clinton signed EO 13166. The policy says that recipients of HHS funds, including doctors participating in Medicaid or Medicare, who fail to provide free translation and interpreter services for their non-English speaking clients may be guilty of violating the ban on "national origin" discrimination in the civil rights law. President Bush subsequently reaffirmed the order over the objection of many affected organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).

    Speaking at the press conference, ProEnglish Chairman Bob Park said, "Stripped of its rhetoric, E.O. 13166 and the HHS policy guidelines are official multilingualism disguised as civil rights enforcement. We reject the legal argument used to justify E.O. 13166, which is that using English is a form of prohibited 'national origin' discrimination."
    Dr. Clifford M. Colwell a founding member of ProEnglish's National Advisory Board is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. Three other physicians including ProEnglish member Dr. Paul Lehmuller, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and ProEnglish are all co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), which is representing ProEnglish and the other co-plaintiffs, filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
    This is the second time in two years that ProEnglish has filed suit against EO 13166 in federal court. The first attempt was blocked on procedural grounds by a Clinton-appointed federal judge. An appellate court later found that the judge had erred, clearing the way for ProEnglish to renew its legal challenge. Copies of the complaint as well as supporting statements by ProEnglish, AAPS, and Dr. Clifford M. Colwell can be found on the ProEnglish website: www.proenglish.org.
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Civil Rights Commission Rejects 'Language Rights' Report
    In September, the US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) rejected a staff report that endorsed the provision of translation services as a proper area for civil rights enforcement. A ProEnglish letter sent to all eight commissioners criticizing the report drew praise as a "terrific letter" from one commissioner and was credited by another's staff assistant as playing a key role in the decision by all four Republican appointees to vote against the report.
    Entitled "Toward Equal Access: Eliminating Language Barriers from Federal Programs" the draft report was made public on July 2, 2004 and was posted on the Commission's website. In an August 16 letter addressed all eight commissioners, ProEnglish Executive Director KC McAlpin pointed out that "language assistance is not a civil right" and noted that the report itself stated that there was no legal basis for asserting that there was.
    Despite this, the report recommended that federal agencies vigorously extend their civil rights enforcement efforts to cases of 'language discrimination,' involving the failure of federally funded agencies to provide translation services as directed by Executive Order 13166.
    McAlpin noted that the fact that someone who doesn't speak English has difficulty communicating with government agencies in a country like the U.S. where English is the common language, was hardly surprising. McAlpin said, "The same would be true for someone living in Brazil who could not speak Portuguese."
    McAlpin went on to denounce the report for ignoring the obvious and lasting solution to the problem of language barriers: one that would truly empower non-English speaking persons to assert their own civil rights instead of keeping them dependent on others - teaching them to speak English. The full text of the letter is available on ProEnglish's website: www.proenglish.org.
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ELECTION REPORT: Elections boost prospects for official English     This fall's congressional elections have significantly brightened hopes for passing an official English bill in Congress.     To begin with the four leading advocates of official English in the House: Representatives Steven King (R-IA), Ernest Istook (R-OK), Peter King (R-NY), and Virgil Goode (R-VA), were all reelected by comfortable margins.     And although the official English movement lost a few strong allies who either retired - Representatives William Lipinski (D-IL) and Edward Shrock (R-VA), or were defeated for reelection - Representatives Max Burns (R-GA) and Phil Crane (R-IL), ProEnglish's analysis of the results indicates that these losses will be more than offset by newly elected congressmen.     But the most exciting news is in the Senate, where there have been almost no strong advocates for official English since the late Senator S.I. Hayakawa (R-CA) retired more than twenty years ago. Two newly elected Senators, Richard Burr (R-NC), and Tom Coburn (R-OK) actively campaigned on the issue in their races for the Senate. And both had strong records of support for official English when they were in the House of Representatives. Three other former House members who won election to the Senate, Jim DeMint (R-SC), David Vitter (R-LA), and Johnny Isakson (R-GA), also had solid records of supporting official English.     Coupled with the demonstration of support for official English in the House of Representatives where more than a quarter of the members signed on as official co-sponsors of at least one official English bill in the last Congress, the outlook for action on official English appears more favorable now than anytime since the House passed an official English bill in 1996.     The only stumbling block could be the Bush Administration. But the president has indicated that overhauling Social Security and tax reform are his major priorities in his second term, making it less likely he will use his political capital to block congressional action on official English. (Back to top) Recount threatens to renew Puerto Rico statehood bid     Although the U.S. narrowly avoided a long drawn out legal battle over the election of its chief executive in 2004, Puerto Rico did not.     When the polls closed the vote count showed the candidate of the pro-commonwealth party, Acevedo Vila, edging out the pro-statehood party candidate and former governor, Pedro Rosello, by only 3,000 votes - a tiny two tenths of one percent of all those cast. The official outcome is being decided by a lengthy recount that is likely to involve legal challenges. The result is that the final outcome may not be known for months.     If Rosello manages to overcome his 3,000-vote deficit and emerge victorious in the recount, he is certain to restart his campaign to change the island's status from being a commonwealth to becoming a state. ProEnglish is adamantly opposed to the admission of any territory such as Puerto Rico that has a language other than English as its official language. (Back to top)

Al Sharpton Endorses a U.S. Divided by Language
    Democratic presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton drew national attention and enthusiastic applause from delegates during his speech to this year's Democratic National Convention.
    But in an awkwardly phrased appeal for Hispanic support for the Democratic ticket, Sharpton explicitly endorsed the idea of a linguistically divided nation. Sharpton said, "We cannot look at the Latino community and preach one language. No one gave them an English test before they sent them to Iraq to fight for America."
    Sharpton appears oblivious to the fact that abandoning America's 'melting pot' ideal and unifying language would only help perpetuate the "Two Americas" Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee John Edwards spoke about so often during the presidential campaign.
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IN THE COURTS Judge says justice system overwhelmed by language burden     A county judge in Georgia accused the federal government of choosing not to enforce the nation's immigration laws and thereby causing the nation's criminal justice system be overwhelmed by the need to provide interpreters for defendants that can't speak English. "The problem would not exist to the extent it does if the federal government would do its job of enforcing the law," said Rockdale County Superior Court Judge Sidney Nation.     Noting that the 14th Amendment requires that due process be provided for all persons, not just citizens, Judge Nation said the cost and difficulty of providing qualified interpreters for a large and growing number of criminal defendants threaten to bring the justice system to a halt. "This is turning into a crushing burden." He added, "We are required to spend an enormous amount of resources on people who should not be here and have, in fact, broken the law in order to be here."     Nation pointed out that this cost is falling directly on taxpayers. He said, "You cannot provide due process [to defendants] unless you can communicate, and this means that the cost of handling these cases will be an increasing burden on the taxpayer." (Back to top) Gitmo to Translators: Say That Again A military tribunal hearing of a Yemeni man accused of being a member of al Qaeda ground to a halt after errors in translation made some of his statements incomprehensible.     Ali Hamza Bahlul, captured in Afghanistan, is the third defendant to face the tribunal since it convened in August. He faces a potential life sentence for alleged conspiracy in several war crimes, including attacks on civilians and terrorism.     "It's well known in all laws," local and civil, that "the decision is the evidence. I know that the presiding officer is not interested that I decide if I am from al Qaeda or not," said Bahlul, according to a transcript rendered by military translators.     But according to other Arabic speakers present, including two government approved interpreters working for other tribunal defendants, Mr. Bahlul had actually said "confession" rather than "decision," and that it must be "free of coercion." Bahlul cited religious and secular law, not local or civil law.     "People of the entire globe should know that I testify that the American government is under no pressure. I am from al Qaeda and the relationship between me and Sept. 11--," Bahlul added, before being interrupted. Other Arabic translators present said that too was a mistranslation. Mr. Bahlul hadn't said the U.S. government wasn't under pressure, but rather that it had not coerced him to admit he belonged to al Qaeda.     The tribunal's legal advisor, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hemingway, said that it might be necessary to "bring in a new team" of interpreters, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. (Back to top)

Language Divides Former Soviet Republic
    Formerly part of the Soviet Empire, Moldova is a small country sandwiched between Romania and the Ukraine. During the Soviet occupation, tens of thousands of Russian speakers were resettled in Romanian-speaking Moldova as part of a campaign to "Russify" the country. This included replacing the Latin alphabet with the Cyrillic alphabet for writing the Romanian language.
    Since regaining independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldava has faced a serious breakaway threat from a now predominantly Russian-speaking section of its territory called Dnester. The region is in open revolt against Moldava's attempt to restore the Latin alphabet and use of the Romanian language, which has led to violence and armed conflict.
    "The U.S. government is involved in the process through the [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] and is cooperating with the European Union to find an equitable solution to this situation," said Jack Dyer Crouch, the U.S. ambassador to Romania, according to the Washington Times.
    Dnester, which declared independence before Moldova regained its sovereignty, is not officially recognized by any nation.

The ProEnglish Advocate is published quarterly by ProEnglish. ProEnglish is a non-profit membership-based organization dedicated to educating the American people about the importance of preserving English as our common language and making it the official language of the U.S. All contributions to ProEnglish are tax-deductible.

ProEnglish Announces Formation of National Board of Advisors
    ProEnglish announced that it has organized a National Board of Advisors. The Advisory Board has responsibility for advising the organization's Board of Directors on policy issues related to official English, and is invited to attend regular board meetings of the organization at least once annually.
    The group will initially consist of eleven members and is chaired by Gerda Bikales, a founding board member of ProEnglish.
    "This is a milestone in the development of ProEnglish as a national organization," said Bob Park, a long-time ProEnglish board member. "Having this group of distinguished citizens on board will raise our profile and, given the breadth of background and experience represented by its members, give us new energy and fresh perspectives on how we can achieve our goal of making English our official language."
    In addition to Bikales, the other members of the National Board of Advisors are: Gwat Battacharjie, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Republican women's leader; Daniel Benvenuti, a civic leader and former president of a statewide citizens organization; Clifford M. Colwell, Jr., M.D., a prominent orthopedic surgeon and the lead plaintiff in ProEnglish's suit challenging Executive Order 13166; Dinesh Desai, a naturalized U.S. citizen, businessman, and philanthropist; Robert Hannay, a real estate developer and philanthropist; Phil Kent, a former newspaper editor, author, and public relations consultant; Lupe Moreno, a community activist and Republican Women's leader; Dr. Rosalie Porter, a naturalized U.S. citizen, author, and education consultant who co-chaired the committee that led the fight to end bilingual education in Massachusetts; John M. Templeton, Jr., M.D., a retired physician, foundation president, and philanthropist; and Jess Valdez, a long time official English citizen activist.
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ProEnglish pushes official English platform planks
    ProEnglish urged both major political parties to take a stand in favor of making English the official language at their respective political conventions in Boston and New York this past summer. In press releases and letters addressed to Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, ProEnglish Executive Director K.C. McAlpin pressed the party leaders to adopt platform planks supporting official English.
    "Our country has thrived as the most successful multi-ethnic and pluralistic nation in the history of the world," McAlpin said. "But today the unprecedented immigration of non-English speaking immigrants threatens to unravel the linguistic and cultural unity of the United States."
    Calling the major political parties' silence on the issue "unconscionable in a democracy" and citing opinion polls showing Americans overwhelmingly support making English the official language, McAlpin charged that special interest groups were obstructing the democratic process.
    "This might not be so serious if government and other institutions put the same emphasis on encouraging immigrants to learn English that was true in earlier times," McAlpin wrote. "…[U]nder pressure from special interest groups, pubic policy leaders today are increasingly willing to abandon the melting pot ideal that has characterized American public policy in the past."
    He added: "As our country becomes more diverse due to immigration, preserving English as our common language becomes more, not less important to the future well being and unity of our nation."
    Tens of thousands of petitions sent in by ProEnglish members accompanied the letters. Despite these efforts, neither major party endorsed official English in their platforms.
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Congress Fails to Act on Official English
    HR 997, a bill making English the official language, attracted more bipartisan support in Congress than any official English legislation has since 1996. Nevertheless, the 108th Congress adjourned without voting on it or any other official English legislation.
    The reason: the Bush Administration let the House leadership know that it did not want the bill to come up for a vote in an election year. With President Bush's reelection now official, ProEnglish believes that the new 109th Congress that will convene in January offers an historic opportunity for official English legislation to pass Congress. ProEnglish is making plans for an all-out campaign to convince the new Congress to take up and pass official English legislation.
    Here are some reasons to be optimistic. First, assured of holding the White House, Republican congressional leaders are now more inclined to consider legislation with broad popular support that will help them keep their majority in Congress. Second, the three main sponsors of official English bills in the last Congress - Representative Peter King (R-NY), Representative Steven King (R-IA), and Representative Virgil Goode (R-VA) - won reelection in November by 2-1 margins.
    ProEnglish has received assurances that all three of these respected congressional leaders are going to be fighting harder than ever for official English in the new Congress. Commenting on these prospects ProEnglish Chairman Bob Park said, "We are under no illusions that it will be easy to pass a bill. The same special interests that benefit from growing divisions over language will be there, fighting us every step of the way. But the issue is not going away and there can be no more excuses for ducking it."
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A new study from the Arizona Department of Public Instruction confirms what English advocates have known for decades. Students learning English as a second language (ESL) in immersion classrooms outperform their peers in bilingual education.
    The exhaustive study analyzed the test scores of 70,000 students. It found that school children in English-immersion programs tested anywhere from six months to over a year and a half ahead of their peers in bilingual education programs by the time they reached sixth grade. An analysis of Spanish speaking students showed that those in English-immersion classrooms were ahead in every subject at every grade level.
    "It's getting harder and harder for the bilingual education industry to ignore the mounting body of empirical data that shows English-immersion is by far the best way to teach children to speak English," said ProEnglish Chairman Bob Park. "In my book, continuing to put children in bilingual classrooms is little more than government-sponsored child abuse."
    The California Department of Education released data in March showing that for the third year in a row, California students learning English made huge gains in statewide tests measuring English skills and academic performance.
    In 1998 California voters abolished the state's bilingual education program in favor of traditional English-immersion teaching methods by passing Proposition 227. Arizona voters followed suit in 2000 by voting to abolish that state's bilingual education program.
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Bill Cosby says correct English tied to success
    Criticizing black Americans who fail to take responsibility for their circumstances, comedian Bill Cosby singled out parents who seem unconcerned about passing on their poor speaking habits to their children.
    "They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English," Cosby said. "I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is' . . . And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. . . . Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. . . .You can't be a doctor with that kind of ['stuff'] coming out of your mouth."
    He added: "Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.'
    Although Cosby's remarks were addressed to blacks, his message is applicable to all Americans. The inability to speak or write English correctly limits opportunities of native-born and foreign-born alike to pursue the American dream. Awareness of this fact has been the motivation behind many immigrant and first generation Hispanic parents who have led the fight to stop their children from being placed in bilingual education classrooms.
    Cosby spoke at a NAACP event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision.
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Many national store chains, faced with the growing problem that many of their lower level employees speak little or no English, have started providing free English classes or other incentives to help those employees learn English. These win-win programs make the employee more valuable to the store and improve the employee's basic skills, simultaneously raising their earning potential. And they promote the nation's welfare by helping immigrants learn our nation's language.
    But Target Stores, the well-known national department store chain, has reversed this winning formula. Target recently decided to expand a pilot program that offers free Spanish lessons to its managers and supervisory personnel to help them communicate with lower level employees. While such a program improves the skill set of managers, it does nothing to improve the skills of lower level employees or raise their earning potential. Instead, it condemns them to lower paid jobs that don't require English. And it harms our nation's welfare by accommodating language divisions and slowing immigrant assimilation.
    ProEnglish members and others who want to protest this short-sighted policy can send a free fax to Target Stores' management by visiting the Fax Center on ProEnglish's website at www.proenglish.org.
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 Harvard's Huntington Asks: Who are we?
    Harvard University's Samuel Huntington likes to ask provocative questions. In his new book, Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity, he provides some answers.
    In doing so, Huntington debunks multiculturalism, persuasively arguing that American culture is based on a foundation of Anglo-Protestant values that has made it unique.
    A self-described 'Kerry Democrat,' Huntington fears that many things that have held America together for centuries are eroding.
    Divisive affirmative action policies, bilingual education and multiculturalism threaten to shatter our shared national identity, in favor of an increasingly fractious collection of ethnic and linguistic groups.
    Huntington's remedy: official English laws and other policies that encourage new immigrants to assimilate, rather than separate along linguistic and ethnic lines.
    The "non-conformist" culture that defines and unites the U.S. today didn't just happen, Huntington writes. It was cultivated and encouraged.
    As immigrants poured into America in the late 18th century, government agencies, civic organizations and businesses took steps to "Americanize" new arrivals. This ensured a high degree of linguistic and cultural homogeneity.
    In the decades before WWI, "Americanization" was a central goal of the progressive era in American political history. More than thirty states eventually passed laws establishing "Americanization" programs. Huntington writes that by 1921, some 3,526 states, cities, towns, and communities were participating in assimilation efforts organized by the federal Bureau of Naturalization.
    The Ford Motor Company provided a six-week English language course for immigrant employees. But according to Huntington, the central institution for "Americanization" was the public school system.
    Today, retail giants like Target Stores teach their employees Spanish (see story page __). Instead of assimilation, 'multiculturalism' and 'diversity' are actively promoted in the public schools. And through Executive Order 13166, the government tries to assert that non-English speakers have a civil right to government services in their native languages.
    Huntington argues that such deliberate efforts to deconstruct America's identity as a nation are unprecedented in human history.