Thread: Ohio's Fight to Make English Official Language

This transcript can be found on Lou Dobbs' site at www.cnn.com

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Ohio is the latest battleground over the English language.

State Representative Courtney Combs...

REP. COURTNEY COMBS (R), OHIO STATE HOUSE: In my district, which is located between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, we have had an influx of about 500 percent increase in the last 15 years of Latinos. And the communication problem between law enforcement and government and human services and those types of things has elevated into a real problem.

ROMANS: He plans to introduce legislation early next year to make English Ohio's official language. A move that has been called insulting, intolerant, xenophobic and nativist.

Benson Wolman is chief executive of the Equal Justice Foundation in Columbus. He says English as the official language sends a bad message.

BENSON WOLMAN, EQUAL JUSTICE FOUNDATION: Essentially, it sounds like those advocates are saying we're going to throw people in cold turkey. We'll throw them into the all-English environment, let them work their way through it. ROMANS: Requiring English for driver's licenses and other state business, he says, is unwelcoming and would shut immigrants out of government services. But proponents say make English official would save cash-strapped states millions of dollars in multilingual services and would encourage immigrants to learn English. And they say just because official business would be in English, it doesn't mean immigrants wouldn't get health care or emergency services in their language, as required by federal law.

K.C. MCALPIN, PROENGLISH: Twenty-seven states have already made English the official language, and it hasn't done anything in terms of being, you know, intolerant or done any harm to any groups.

ROMANS: Proponents also say encouraging English is pro- immigrant. Studies show immigrants who speak English earn 50 percent more than those who don't.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: And that's why people in favor of English as an official language bristle at being called intolerant or racist. They insist that English has always been the unifying language of this country. And encouraging English, they say, is pro-immigrant.

In fact, they charge that immigrant groups are more interested in preserving free government services in Spanish than encouraging immigrants to learn English -- Lou.

DOBBS: The unfortunate part is that's, in many cases, very true. The idea that somehow requiring English as the official language is intolerant is mind-boggling. Who could be more tolerant than the United States, with the millions of illegal aliens that has frankly paralyzed our government for the better part of 15 years, which does not act to enforce laws?

ROMANS: And nobody who is a proponent of English would ever say that they would like 911 operators not to speak Spanish, or Chinese in neighborhoods where that's appropriate, or firefighters not to speak any number of languages in neighborhoods where that's appropriate.

DOBBS: Well, there is an issue here. A basic requirement of citizenship is to understand the English language. That has not been changed, and it's something that some people need to think about.

What becomes difficult for me are the number of rather ethnocentric groups, the open borders advocates, who suggest that to control illegal immigration is somehow racist, or as you pointed out, intolerant, or xenophobic, it's mind-boggling, because the inverse of the corollary is this: what they're saying is, the only way to be judged tolerant in their view is to advocate more open borders, absolute absence of border security, and to permit illegal immigration and perpetuity, and the heck with the consequences.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/10/31/english.html

Opponents Speak Out Against English-Only Bill

Reported by: AP
Web produced by: Liz Foreman
Photographed by: 9News
First posted: 10/31/2005 9:54:24 AM

Opponents are speaking out against a proposal to declare English as Ohio's official language -- even before the bill is introduced in the Legislature.

State Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Fairfield, has said he will introduce his Ohio English Unity Act, which would require state agencies to produce records only in English, by the end of the year.

Opponents say the law which supposedly is intended to unite Ohioans under one language could instead divide immigrants and native-born Americans.

Julia Arbini Carbonell, president of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition, said the legislation disrespects immigrants. She calls it "a bill about intolerance."

Benson Wolman of the Equal Justice Foundation in Columbus said the legislation could conflict with an amendment of civil-rights law that requires government agencies to ensure that people who don't speak English well are receiving services.

He says the law probably would be challenged in court.

The Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs has been working with Combs to develop a bill that does not persecute people who are trying to learn English, said Ezra Escudero, executive director.

Expanding language instruction, promoting multiple-language skills and bolstering funding to groups that help immigrants are better alternatives, he said.

Well, tough luck. If it divides immigrants and Americans, it will only be because those IMMIGRANTS refused to ASSIMILATE.