In Miami the primary language is Spanish, more immigrants (legal and illegal) would rather not learn English. Should we make it a law that the countries language is English Only?

All previous immigrants to this country have learned to use the English language, at least while out in society. Many of them continued to speak their native tongue at home and with other immigrants, but typically that only lasted through one, perhaps two, generations. The earliest immigrants to my state of Minnesota were mainly Norwegians, Germans and Swedes. As an American of Norwegian descent, the only person I ever heard speak Norwegian was my paternal grandmother’s second husband, who had emigrated to the US as a child. America is a melting pot of peoples from various cultures with differing languages. If we did not have one standard language, all would be chaos.

Here in Minnesota, where all immigrants are welcomed with open arms and even wider open state coffers, we have recently seen massive waves of immigrants, starting in the 1970s with the Hmong, a peasant people displaced from the Vietnam war, who were fleeing interment camps in Cambodia and elsewhere. The older generation had a difficult time learning English, but their children were both eager and encouraged to learn English. Many of them were classmates of my children in the 80s and early 90s and there was not an excessive amount of classroom time teaching these children English.

Then in the late 90s, an influx of Africans from Somalia escaped the genocide and persecution of their country for the US. By far the largest group of Somalis settled in Minnesota. But rather than peasants, the majority of emigrants were educated, professional people. Many already knew English and those who did not learned quickly. However, because the Somalis believe they are in the US temporarily, choosing to return to Somalia when the genocide ends, and because they are Muslim, they have done very little to assimilate into our western culture. They continue to speak their own language amongst themselves, but speak English when out in society at large.

The Mexican immigrants, illegal or not, have come to the land of opportunity, which their government has told them will take care of their every need. Many seem to have a skewed view of what the USA “owes” them. They wish to hang onto their culture (which is admirable) but do not wish to take part at all in US culture, except to clamor for their perceived “rights.” They have become adept at filing lawsuits, protesting and marching while carrying their Mexican flags rather than American flags, and demanding their “rights” even while they are here illegally. One of their “rights” is to speak only Spanish, and demand that all signs, newspapers and TV channels acquiesce to this “right” by providing not only the English language, but Spanish, too.

I really am not Einstein, but I say enough is enough! Either learn English, the language used in the USA in classrooms, boardrooms, stores, restaurants, etc., and learn the American culture, or go home.

PS: After purchasing a timeshare in Mexico with two other people, all three of us learned Spanish, to some degree, in order to speak with the people around us. It was really not necessary, as 99% of them knew English, but we felt that we should know something of our host country, even if we were only there two weeks of the year.