Congress Agrees: English Should Be America’s National Language

While the immigration debate clearly defined issues on which Senate opinions differ widely, it also illuminated subjects where there is more agreement. Of all the Amendments offered to the controversial bill, only four managed to achieve more than 60 supportive votes. One of these was Sen. Jim Inhofe’s (R-OK.) effort to make English the national language of the United States, where 17 Democrats joined 47 Republicans in strong support of encouraging English acquisition and reducing government multilingualism.

The sentiment in the Senate very closely matches the sentiment of Americans, who are vastly divided on the subject of immigration, but overwhelmingly support assimilation for all newcomers to our nation. Recent national polls have found that the vast majority of Americans support making English the official language of the United States, including a majority of Hispanics and a majority of Americans, 18-24.

The bipartisan Senate vote was noteworthy given the recent politics of this issue. During last week’s Democratic debate for President, official English measures were opposed by all but one of the candidates. One aspirant (falsely) claimed that such measures would deny translations in medical emergencies, while another chided the moderator for even broaching such a “divisive