On March 1, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order declaring English as the official language of the United States, an order that also rescinds former President Bill Clinton’s mandate from 2000 requiring federal agencies to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
According to the White House’s official website, “Establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication but also reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society.”
However, Jannet Martínez Reyes, treasurer for La Raza, feels that the order does the opposite.
“It’s weird to see how he’s claiming, or just the administration in general, is claiming that this is going to unify people when we can see that it’s only really trying to unify specific people,” Martínez Reyes said. “It’s a complaint that people have heard constantly, like that racist bullshit where it’s like ‘oh speak English, you’re in America.’ Now he’s reinforcing that and he’s giving validity to that.”
In 2022, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences found that over 80% of Americans spoke only English in their day-to-day life, even if they were multilingual.
Frederik Green, chair of the modern languages and literature department, said that this executive order isn’t particularly important in a country where over 350 languages are spoken, but it could have impacts on federally-funded language services.
“You can choose if you want to do it in Spanish or in Chinese, or if you want a translator that will provide translation services, which of course, is wonderful, right? This is what America is about,” Green said. “But those services — that’s what might, of course, get cut, impacted.”
Similarly, Spanish professor Ana Luengo noted that the order is “completely against immigration and against all multilingual education.”
“I believe it is very consistent with his entire policy of criminalizing migrants and also of trying to create a homogeneous American identity, which is what he represents,” Luengo said.
Citlali Hernández, a senior Spanish major, noted that although this order will affect the country in slight ways, it doesn’t hold as much gravity as other executive orders Trump has signed.
“It is not something that changes the structure that we already have. Although he has signed this order, it doesn’t mean that all our diversity automatically disappears,” said Hernández.
Green said he felt that the order’s target audience was people who feel threatened by others who speak a language they don’t understand.
“With immigration having become such a highly politicized topic, it serves both to stoke up more fears,” said Green. “‘Everybody who doesn’t speak English needs to be kept out because now we have this executive order.’ But it also sort of reaffirms those people who feel that, yeah, you know, people who don’t speak our language are somehow threatening. What’s of course, really, really, really sad is that there’s nothing threatening about a foreign language. It’s only threatening if you don’t understand it.”
Green, who is from Germany, noted that in Europe, every country has a national language. In theory, a national language isn’t a bad idea.
“However, this, of course, happens in this current political climate and the current political president when, at the same time, we see so many other pretty unthinkable things happening in the federal government and happening with regard to immigrants,” Green said.
Since his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump has signed several orders regarding immigration, including declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, expanding detention centers, and attempting to eliminate birthright citizenship. The elimination of language services could be yet another crackdown Trump has taken.
Martínez Reyes spoke from experience about how language services affected their mother’s ability to receive help at an optometrist’s office.
“She couldn’t do her appointment because she couldn’t fill out any of the paperwork,” Martínez Reyes said. “She couldn’t speak to the people and they weren’t making an effort to try and like to speak to her. That was before the English executive order was signed. And before things got cut in a state that has so many more resources than others do. So it’s like, where are we going from here now? If this is the baseline, where are we going?”
In California, this order will likely not have a big impact. English has been the state’s official language since 1986.
“I feel that sometimes we think of California as an oasis where everything is great, but in 1998, there was a vote here against multilingual schools,” said Luengo. “And in 2008, there was a vote against same-sex marriage. California is not the liberal oasis that people think it is, not at all. It’s very easy for that to change.”
Green said that a possible solution to resolve the stigma around other languages is to implement more language education.
“I mean, there are so many great reasons to learn a foreign language,” Green said. “And yet we as a country don’t do it. And honestly, our policymakers are doing everything to discourage young people from doing it. And that, you know, that is the real tragedy.”
According to Luengo and Green, the number of languages offered at the university has shrunk from about 10 to seven within the past five years.
“I believe it is an extremely monolingual university,” Luengo said. “This worries me a lot because a third of the students are Spanish speakers. And I always think that, as a professor, this is also what I try to demonstrate: You all already have the power to access knowledge at a higher academic level, and knowing the language can open so many more doors for you. But this university doesn’t support us at all.”
As a student, Hernández believes that learning a new language and being multilingual opens doors, both culturally and personally.
“If people have the opportunity to learn a language, even if it’s only five words, and they can remember those five words, I think it’s a little piece of community that people can have that shows they’re trying to learn about your community and others.”
