Official English hits different coming from White House

President Donald Trump’s recent declaration of English as the official language of the US may seem relatively benign. Most residents already speak English and most immigrants are eager to learn it. Under most presidents, such a directive might have been largely symbolic. After all, 32 states already have English as their official language. But Trump isn’t most presidents. He has demonised immigrants for more than a decade, making them the scapegoats for nearly every societal ill. In his first term he complained that too many of them came from “(expletive) countries.” At a campaign event last March, he decried those who speak languages “that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.” In his address to Congress, he touted his new executive order and accused legal immigration of resulting in “beautiful towns destroyed.”

Now Trump would have us believe that this new policy will “make the United States a shared home and empower new citizens to achieve the American dream” and that his order “recognises and celebrates the long tradition of multilingual American citizens who have learned English and passed it to their children.” There is little doubt of the benefits of learning English as rapidly as possible for newcomers. But learning another language is difficult — more so for some than others. The transition is eased with resources while learners get up to speed: English language classes for adults, important documents printed in native languages, bilingual education for children. This order does nothing of the sort. It is a sink-or-swim message that urges immigrants to learn English as quickly as possible or suffer the consequences.

It frees the federal government and organisations receiving federal funds from having to provide language assistance to non-English or limited English speakers. That had been required since President Bill Clinton signed an executive order in 2000 mandating such assistance. Trump has noted that his order does not go as far as prohibiting agencies or groups receiving federal funds from providing non-English assistance, allowing them to make the final call. But that sounds more magnanimous than it is. Much of the bureaucracy of the federal government is now in survival mode, and likely to choose the path of least resistance. With grants being canceled left and right, non-governmental groups lucky enough to hang onto federal funds will be wary of crossing some DEI tripwire by providing non-English help.

Nor should official English be looked at in isolation. It is just one piece of an anti-immigrant agenda that includes America First, mass deportations, birthright citizenship and other efforts that create a permission structure for creeping xenophobia.

One of the organisations behind the push is Pro-English, a strong supporter of Trump and an advocacy group with a broader agenda that Americans should find disturbing. The group isn’t only in favor of English; it also wants to curtail the use of other languages. The organisation wants to end bilingual education in public schools and halt the translation of government documents — including ballots — into other languages. Trump’s order states that “a nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society” and will “cultivate a shared American culture for all citizens.” That’s one of those statements that sounds like it should be true, but isn’t. The US has never declared an official language, yet has been unified and cohesive enough to be the world’s leading superpower for 85 years.

Throughout US history, there have always been multiple languages spoken in this country. Immigrants have poured in from every corner of the globe, bringing their languages and ethnic ways with them, literally building the “shared American culture” that Trump now thinks requires an official language. This executive order was not done on a whim. Nativists have long pushed for it and Trump has been promising it for years. Vice President JD Vance has also been a strong proponent. In his brief time in the Senate, Vance was chief sponsor of an “Official English” proposal that went nowhere.