Thread: LA mayor opposes English provision of immigration bill

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May 28, 10:21 PM EDT

A mayor opposes English provision of immigration bill

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- If an amendment to a federal immigration bill making English the national language is strictly enforced it could result in people who provide emergency services being unable to communicate with those in need, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Sunday.

The mayor, appearing on CNN's "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer, said he is "on board, basically" with many of the proposals contained in the immigration bill adopted by the Senate last week.

The bill would tighten border security, offer a guest worker program and provide a chance at citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. It would also require that the U.S. government "preserve and enhance the role of English as the national language."

"Unless specifically stated in applicable law, no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services, or provide materials in any language other than English," the amendment states.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he doesn't believe the amendment would negate any current laws, but Villaraigosa foresees problems.

"Well, what it means is you won't be able to communicate with people for badly needed services. They could be emergency services. They could be services for medical care," he said.

He also noted that the Senate made no provisions to help immigrants learn English.

"They didn't allocate money so people can learn English. I can tell you that, here in Los Angeles, there are lines, thousands of people waiting to learn English in our adult schools," he said.

"Having said that," I do support ... this broad immigration reform," Villaraigosa said.

A similar bill in the House of Representatives does not include a provision allowing a chance at citizenship for illegal immigrants, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner said Sunday that could prevent the two sides from reaching agreement on a final proposal.

This is ridiculous!! Why should the American Taxpayer provide funds for illegal aliens to learn english. If they want to learn english, then the illegals should pay for it instead of sending their money back to Mexico. The cost of their english classes will not come out of my pocket!!!

I fully agree...why should the taxpayer once again absorb the cost of English classes for those who have chosen to come here illegally? We are not required to accomodate illegal aliens and I don't care if LULAC or any other organization calls me prejudiced since there are more languages than simply Spanish on this planet. It is only the poorly educated, arrogant and self-righteous illegal Hispanics that make such demands fosterd by idiots like the mayor of LA.

How is this surprising, he is the mayor of LA for goodness sake. Of course he does not want English.

I have relatives in the Los Angeles area....if I were to visit, I would expect anyone there to fully conprehend and speak in English....let their SECOND language be whatever it is. Perhaps making Chinese our second national language would really screw up the heads of the Hispanics since Chinese is more widely spoken in the world than Spanish or English.

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There are alot of churches and schools that offer FREE english classes. They never offered any other group of immigrants English classes. It's a bunch of bull that they aren't required to do a thing on their own. If the Catholic church wants to cater to them and they're so religiously involved and all......let the church offer classes. There's no need for our tax dollars to be wasted on stuff like this.

The Catholic church was burned big time because of its sexaual abuse scandals...now they are trying to make a come back by catering to people who supposedly are Catholics and are illegally in this country. If the illegals were truly Catholics then they'd be abiding by our immigration laws...hence this is a joke. Furthermore, if the Catholic church wishes to take on a political position then it should have its tax exempt status removed and it also should be held accountable for all the criminal activity of those they support illegally here.

This is one of the same excuses they gave in their attempt to defeat Prop. 200 here in Arizona. It was a lot of bull then and It's a lot of bull now.

Since the passage of Prop 200, this has never been mentioned again and obviously isn't an issue at all. The real issue is that it like most laws on the books aren't being enforced!

I remember seeing a local news broadcast and they were interviewing some illegal’s concerning the “english as the national language” issue. The illegal’s stated they want to learn english but the U.S. government must provide the resources! I was outraged!! This just shows they do not want to assimilate into society but want to rob our society! I know some Mexicans and they tell me that they grow up with one goal and that is to come to the U.S. and make money to send home (to Mexico). If that is the case then they have plenty of time to learn the language. And do we really need a law that says what language we will speak!! This is the United States of America!! The Japanese know english!